Son attended college first half of year then started full-time job - Can I still claim him as dependent?

Based on your situation, this comes down to a few key tests for dependency. For your son to qualify as your dependent, you'll need to satisfy the following: 1) Support test - Did you provide more than half of his support for the entire year? This includes housing, food, education, medical expenses, etc. Even though he started working full-time after May, you need to look at the entire year's picture. 2) Residency test - Did he live with you for more than half the year? College housing counts as temporary absence for education, so that time would count as living with you. 3) Income test - This is where it gets tricky. Since he was a full-time student for part of the year, the income limit may still apply depending on his total earnings. For a qualifying child (which includes full-time students under 24), the income test doesn't apply. If you're claiming him, he'll need to check the box on his return that says someone else can claim him as a dependent. He should not claim a personal exemption for himself if you're claiming him.

Just wanted to share my experience with almost the exact same situation. I was getting nowhere trying to figure out if I could claim my daughter who graduated last spring. Then I tried this tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that really helped me. I uploaded our info and it analyzed our specific situation and confirmed I could claim her as a dependent even though she started working full-time after graduation. The tool looked at all the tests - support, residency, relationship, etc. - and showed exactly why she qualified as my dependent. It also created documentation explaining the exact rules that applied to our situation which was super helpful since the IRS dependency rules are confusing.

Just wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai. I decided to try it out after responding to your comment, and I'm actually really impressed. I had a complicated situation with my son who is in college but also earned income from an internship and some freelance work. The tool confirmed exactly which dependency tests applied in our situation and showed that I could claim him despite his income. It even provided the exact sections of IRS publications that supported this conclusion and created a detailed explanation document that I saved in case of audit. Definitely worth checking out if you're dealing with dependency questions or other complicated tax situations.

For what it's worth, I ran into a similar situation and I tried calling the IRS directly for clarification... big mistake! Was on hold for over 2 hours and then got disconnected. I was about to give up but then found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c They have this system that basically waits on hold for you and calls you back when an IRS agent is available. The agent I spoke with confirmed that I could claim my son as a dependent since he was a full-time student for part of the year, lived with me over half the year (counting dorm time), and I provided more than half his support for the year.

I need to eat my words about being skeptical of Claimyr. After my last response, I decided to try it because I was getting absolutely nowhere with the IRS's regular phone line. I had been trying for DAYS to get through about a dependent question similar to yours. The service actually worked exactly as described. I got a call back in about 20 minutes and was connected to a real IRS agent who answered my questions about claiming my son who graduated and started working mid-year. The agent confirmed the same information others have shared here - that I can claim him since he was a full-time student for part of the year, lived with me over half the year (dorm counts!), and I provided more than half his total yearly support. Definitely a huge time saver compared to the hours I wasted trying to call directly.

One thing to consider that nobody has mentioned yet - if your child has significant income from their new job, you might want to run the numbers both ways (claiming them vs not claiming them) to see which benefits your family more overall. Sometimes it can actually be more beneficial for the child to claim themselves if they have enough income and can take advantage of certain credits that you might not be eligible for. Tax software makes it pretty easy to try different scenarios to see which gives your family the best overall outcome.

Just a heads up - make sure you communicate clearly with your son about who's claiming who. My daughter and I had a huge mess last year because she filed her taxes first and claimed herself without telling me, then I tried to claim her as a dependent. We both got letters from the IRS and had to file amended returns. The IRS does check for this!

This is such a common situation with college graduates! Based on what you've described, it sounds like you should be able to claim your son as a dependent. The key factors working in your favor are: 1. He was a full-time student for nearly half the year (through May) 2. You likely provided more than half his total support for the year (tuition, housing, food through May vs. his earnings from June onward) 3. Dorm time counts as living with you for the residency test One important thing to keep in mind - since he earned $35,000 from his new job, definitely run the numbers both ways as someone mentioned. Sometimes the family comes out ahead when the child claims themselves, especially if there are education credits involved from his final semester. Also, make sure you coordinate with your son before either of you files! You don't want to both claim/not claim him and trigger IRS letters. Been there with my own kids and it's a headache to fix. The IRS has a helpful interactive tool called the "Interactive Tax Assistant" on their website that can walk you through the dependency tests if you want an official confirmation before filing.