If I only attended college for the spring semester, do I still count as a dependent?
Hey everyone, I have a question that I hope some of you are able to answer since it's a bit unclear to me.
I am 19 years old and I attended college as a full-time student during the spring semester this year. I received financial aid, which covered all of my tuition & books completely. For the new school year though, something personal happened that has prevented me to attend college for the fall semester.
I understand that parents are able to file their sons & daughters as dependents if they're between 19-24 years old as long as they they were a full time student during five months of the tax calendar year at an institution.
My question is, will my parents still be able to file me as a dependent this upcoming tax season even though I last attended school this past spring semester between January to May?
?2016-08-30T08:49:39Z
The IRS's official definition of "student" is someone who is enrolled FULL time for some part of 5 different calendar months.
Your college defines how many credits you must be taking in order to count as full time. They will publish this information and you can ask your registration department for their definition. This is NOT a cumulative thing, for example being half-time for the whole year doesn't count as 6 months worth of school, it counts as 0.
The 5 month potion of the rule goes by calendar months. Each month counts as long as you attended at least one day within that month.
So if your Spring Semester started on or before January 31st and it ran through at least May 1st you would meet the 5 month rule because you attended at least 1 day within 5 different calendar months (Jan-May)
You are a dependent under the Qualifying Child rule if:
1. You are under 19 or under 24 (check) and are a full time student for any part of any 5 months (check) of the year. One or more days in each months from Jan - May meets the test.
2. You lived in your parent's home for more than half of the year. Time temporarily away from home at school counts as time at home. (probably check)
3. You did not provide more than half of your OWN support for the entire year. The amount of support provided by your parents is NOT a factor here. Support includes shelter, food, entertainment, education, travel, clothing, etc. While education costs that you paid for yourself from your own funds, including loans that you alone are responsible for the repayment of counts as self support, that is often offset by your share of the fair rental value of your parents' home and its operating costs. Run the numbers using the worksheet on page 16 of IRS Pub 501 to be sure. (undetermined, but check in most cases)
Bottom line, you are most likely a dependent for 2016 unless you meet the support test in #3 above.
If it started in January and went into May, like most spring semesters do, yes, that's enough to make you a full time student for the year, and your parents can claim you.
Attending college or not does not determine if you are a dependent or not. Presuming you are a dependent it would determine if you are a classified as a dependent child or an other dependent.
at 19 you have to be living in the household of the parent(away at school is considered at home) six months of the year, attend full time school 5 months of the year and NOT provide more than 50% of your own support