<p>It appears she can claim herself based on providing more than half her support through earnings, s.s., and loans. It does seem that many people do their taxes both ways and use the method that yields the best results, is doing this somehow an accepted practice?<br>
Most of the information I have found relates to families trying to create “independent students” that is not our goal, ironically one of my concerns was that if she claimed herself she would become an independent student, I now know that is not the case. Since we have no taxable income it is better for her to claim herself since it results in reducing her tax debt by about $700. I still need to determine if claiming herself will have any other ramifications in regards to grants and health insurance. I am surprised that we were never forewarned that she would owe so much tax on the grants by the financial aid office or the grant provider, had we known we would have made some different decisions in the past year and been more prepared to pay the cost of the taxes.
To annoying dad I am not sure how to move information from this thread to the other one, I honestly stumble through using the site. Thank you again for the helpful information.</p>