How do I answer filing status when I'm in college, living with grandparents but making $23k?

The key question here is whether you qualify as a dependent under IRS rules. Based on your income ($31,000), you're right to question this because you exceed the income threshold for a qualifying child, which is $4,300 for 2022. For your grandparents to claim you as a dependent, you'd need to meet several tests. The income test is just one part - there's also relationship, residency, support, and age/student tests. Since you're a college student under 24 living with them, you meet the relationship, residency, and age/student tests. Where things get tricky is the support test. Even though they provide housing and food, the IRS looks at who provides more than 50% of your TOTAL support. Your support includes housing, food, clothing, education expenses, medical costs, transportation, and other necessities. If you're paying for college, your own car, clothing, phone, etc. with your income, you might be providing more than 50% of your own support despite the free housing and food. I'd recommend sitting down with your grandparents to calculate who provides more total support. If you provide more than 50% of your own support, you can't be claimed as a dependent, regardless of your living situation.

I went through this exact situation a couple years ago when i was finishing college! The dependency question was driving me crazy until I found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai). It's basically an AI tax assistant that analyzes your specific situation and tells you exactly how to handle dependency status questions. I uploaded my details - living with grandparents, my income info, expenses, etc - and it immediately gave me a clear answer on whether I could be claimed as a dependent. It even explained the specific IRS rules that applied to me and provided documentation I could use if there was ever a question. Way easier than trying to interpret IRS publications myself! The site also helped me figure out if I qualified for education credits since I was paying some of my tuition. Honestly saved me so much stress during tax season.

Just wanted to update that I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here, and it was exactly what I needed! I've been stressing about this dependent question for weeks. My situation was complicated because my parents pay my tuition directly to the university, but I work full-time and pay for my apartment and all living expenses. The site walked me through a support test calculation where I entered all my expenses and who paid for what. Turns out my parents still provide slightly over 50% of my total support when you factor in the tuition, so I shouldn't claim myself as independent. But the tool also showed me that next year, if my income increases just a bit more, I'll cross that threshold. It even generated a PDF summary that explains the calculation that I'm keeping for my records in case of any questions from the IRS. Wish I'd known about this sooner!

If you're still confused after trying to figure out your dependent status, you might want to try calling the IRS directly to get clarification. I know, I know - everyone says it's impossible to get through to them, but I used this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) and it actually worked! I was in a similar situation - living with my aunt, working part-time, unsure about dependency status. I tried calling the IRS for weeks but kept getting the "due to high call volume" message and disconnects. Claimyr basically holds your place in line and calls you when an IRS agent is about to answer. You can see how it works in this demo: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent walked me through the exact rules for my situation and confirmed I couldn't be claimed as a dependent because of my income, even though I lived with family. Having that official confirmation gave me peace of mind when filing.

I need to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I was still stuck with my tax questions and desperate for answers, so I decided to try it despite my concerns. The service actually works exactly as described. It held my place in line with the IRS (which had a 2+ hour wait that day), and when an agent was available, I got connected directly to the official IRS line. The agent verified my identity using my prior year tax info, and helped clarify my dependency status questions. The agent confirmed that in my situation, since I pay for more than half of my own support through my job (even though I live at home with my parents), I should file as independent. She even explained exactly how to calculate the support test properly. Definitely worth it to get an official answer straight from the IRS instead of guessing.

Something important no one's mentioned yet - have you talked to your grandparents about this? They might not even be planning to claim you as a dependent regardless of whether you qualify or not. My parents technically could have claimed me for one year during college based on the support test, but they chose not to because I got better education tax credits filing independently. Sometimes it makes more financial sense for the student to claim themselves even if they could be claimed by someone else. It's worth having the conversation because if they're not planning to claim you, your decision is easy. But if they are planning to claim you and you don't qualify (or vice versa), you'll want to sort that out before either of you file to avoid problems.

I'm seeing a lot of confusion about the definitions here. I went through this with my son recently, so let me clarify some terms: For a Qualifying Child (which would apply to grandchildren too): - Must be under 19, or under 24 if a full-time student - Must live with the taxpayer for more than half the year - Must not provide more than half of their own support - The income test of $4,300 ONLY applies to Qualifying Relatives, NOT Qualifying Children So if you're a full-time student under 24, the $31,000 income doesn't automatically disqualify you! The key test is whether you provide more than half your own support. Calculate ALL your annual expenses (housing value, food, utilities, tuition, books, clothing, medical, transportation, phone, etc.) and figure out how much of that YOU paid versus your grandparents. That's what determines dependency status.