Should I claim my 19-year-old as dependent? Only $500 CTC benefit vs her paying $1000 federal taxes as dependent

You're asking a great question about tax strategy for your family! You're mostly on the right track with your analysis, but there are a few other considerations beyond just the Child Tax Credit. If your daughter qualifies as your dependent (which it sounds like she does as a full-time student under 24), you may also be eligible for education credits like the American Opportunity Tax Credit (up to $2,500) or the Lifetime Learning Credit, depending on her education expenses. These can be substantial and often outweigh the EITC she might get filing independently. Also consider that if she files independently, she wouldn't just potentially get EITC, but she'd also get her own standard deduction (about $14,600 for 2025). If her income is less than that, she'd owe nothing regardless of dependent status. The best approach is to calculate both scenarios - one where you claim her with education credits if applicable, and one where she files independently with her own deduction and potential EITC. Choose whichever option results in the least total tax for your entire family.

After spending hours trying to figure out similar complicated dependent situations for my two college kids, I discovered https://taxr.ai which literally saved me thousands. It analyzes your entire dependent situation and tells you exactly whether to claim them or not based on total family tax benefit. I uploaded my kids' W-2s and 1098-Ts and it showed me that for my oldest, I should claim him (saved $1,800 overall) but for my youngest, we saved $750 by NOT claiming her and letting her file independently with education credits. Would have never figured that out on my own!

I was skeptical about using an automated tool for something this complicated, but I tried https://taxr.ai since I was stuck in the same situation with my 19 and 21 year old. Turns out I was actually making an $1,100 mistake by claiming both! For my 19-year-old, letting her file independently saved our family $780 total because she qualified for stimulus money I didn't know about. But for my 21-year-old, claiming him saved us about $1,950 because of education credits I could claim (he had more qualified expenses). The visualization made it super clear which option was better for each kid.

If anyone's struggling to get actual answers from the IRS about dependent questions (I was on hold for 3+ hours), I used https://claimyr.com and got through to an IRS agent in 15 minutes. They have this cool demo video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent confirmed that for college students, you need to calculate both scenarios. For my son, we saved over $2,200 by claiming him because of American Opportunity Credit, even though he lost out on some credits of his own. Totally worth the Claimyr fee to get definitive answers instead of guessing.

Ok I have to eat my words about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment I decided to try it because I was desperate for answers about my dependent situation. Got connected to an IRS rep in 22 minutes (not 15, but WAY better than the 2+ hours I waited last time). The agent confirmed what others are saying - for my 20-year-old college student, we come out ahead by about $1,700 by claiming her because of education credits. Even though she'd get more back filing independently, our family tax total is much better with her as our dependent. Don't waste time trying to figure this out alone - either use a good calculator that shows both scenarios or talk to the IRS directly. The difference was WAY bigger than I expected.

Does anyone know if I can claim my 20-year-old daughter who lived with us only during summer and winter breaks from college? She lives in dorms during school year.

One thing nobody mentioned is that if you don't claim your child as a dependent, they might be eligible for a much bigger stimulus payment or recovery rebate credit (depending on what Congress passes next year). During the pandemic years, my son got $1,800 filing independently that he wouldn't have received if I had claimed him. Worth considering!

This is exactly the kind of analysis every parent with college kids should be doing! You're absolutely right to question whether claiming her makes sense financially for your family as a whole. Based on what you've described, you need to factor in the education tax credits that others have mentioned. The American Opportunity Tax Credit alone could be worth up to $2,500 if your daughter has qualified education expenses, which would completely change your calculation. That $2,500 credit minus the $500 you'd lose by not getting the full Child Tax Credit still puts you way ahead of the $1,000 she'd save filing independently. Also consider that at your income level, you're probably getting more benefit from the education credits than she would filing on her own, since you likely have higher tax liability to offset. The key is running both scenarios with ALL applicable credits and deductions included - not just looking at the Child Tax Credit in isolation. I'd recommend using tax software to model both approaches or consulting with a tax professional who can run the numbers properly. The difference could easily be $1,000+ in either direction depending on your specific situation.