For 2025, can I claim my college student as dependent when I'm the former noncustodial parent?

Thanks for the detailed response. So if I understand correctly, the time she spends in her dorm room is essentially "neutral" - it doesn't count as living with either parent? Then we would only count the breaks when she's with one of us? Also, does her health insurance coverage through my ex-wife weigh heavily in the support calculation? It's probably worth around $4,000 annually if we had to buy it separately.

The time your daughter spends in the dorm is actually considered a "temporary absence" from your home if you're the one maintaining that home for her to return to. So it's not exactly neutral - the IRS generally considers that she's "living with" whoever she would naturally return to. Since she splits time between both parents during breaks, you'd need to determine which home is her main one. Health insurance is definitely part of the support calculation, but at around $4,000, it would be compared against the total support costs. If you're paying for college tuition, room and board which might total $25,000-$45,000 depending on the school, plus other expenses, you're likely still providing more than half her total support overall.

Does it really work with complicated custody arrangements? My kid is in college now but spends more time at my ex's place during breaks because it's closer to his job. I pay most of his tuition though. Will this tool actually tell me definitively who gets to claim him?

I'm skeptical of these tax tools. How is it different from TurboTax or H&R Block's questionnaires? They always make me go through a million questions and still leave me confused about dependent status.

It absolutely works with complicated custody arrangements. You just upload your documentation showing what you pay for (receipts, tuition statements, etc.) and it analyzes who provides more support. It gives you a clear percentage breakdown of support provided by each parent based on actual documentation rather than just asking generic questions. It's completely different from tax prep software because it focuses specifically on document analysis rather than generic questionnaires. It looks at your actual situation with real numbers from your documents, not just yes/no questions. It's like having a tax pro review your specific case but without the $200+ hourly fee.

How does this actually work? I've tried calling the IRS multiple times and always give up after 30+ minutes. Do they just keep redialing for you or something? Sounds too good to be true.

This seems like a waste of money. Why pay for something when you can just call yourself? And even if you get through, the IRS agents often give conflicting advice. I've had them tell me different things about the same question when I called twice.

The service works by using their technology to navigate the IRS phone system and wait in the queue for you. When they reach an actual agent, they call you and connect you directly. It's not about redialing - they literally wait on hold so you don't have to. You go about your day and your phone rings when there's an actual human ready to talk. I understand the skepticism, but the IRS wait times are ridiculous right now - often 2+ hours if you can get through at all. Yes, you could do it yourself if you have hours to waste on hold. As for getting different answers, that's precisely why I wanted to speak to someone and get their badge number - so I had documentation of the advice I received for my records.

Thanks for bringing that up. She has a part-time campus job that pays about $4,500 per year, and she has a small scholarship of $2,500. But her total expenses between tuition, room & board, books, living expenses, etc. are around $32,000 annually. So she's definitely not covering more than half of her own support.

You're definitely safe then. With her only covering about $7,000 of a $32,000 total support amount, she's providing less than 25% of her own support. The main issue will still be between you and your ex - which of you provides more of the remaining support. Since you're covering tuition and housing which are usually the biggest expenses, you're likely providing more than half of her total support despite the health insurance from your ex. Make sure to keep good documentation of everything you pay for. The IRS looks at the entire picture including transportation, clothing, medical expenses, and other costs beyond just the education expenses.

Actually there's also the American Opportunity Tax Credit which can be worth up to $2,500 if your paying for college expenses. Only the person who claims the student as a dependent can take this credit so it might be a big deal who claims her.