<p>Most parents know that their children are legally adults when they turn 18. But the full significance may not be apparent until something drives it home.</p>
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<p>Not at my kid’s school. It was ridiculously difficult, requiring TWO in person visits to the campus by me and a complaint to the Dean of Students to get the procedure clarified so my kid could request a waiver. Just saying… it is hard at some schools to gain access to information.</p>
<p>Yes, I think it’s a shock to some parents to realize that legal childhood really does end at 18. It’s at that point of legal emancipation - 18- that it pays off not to have had the leash too tight in the late teen years because at 18 it becomes more of a parallel relationship thatn a parent in charge of a child relationship. it aint’ easy but if the foundation is strong it’s not that difficult – but often surprising when our kids succeed in navigating adult things and surprising when they call you and tell you they still need you. </p>
<p>However, a parent retains absolute veto power over the 18-23 year old kid’s college education, unless s/he earns a full ride merit scholarship or otherwise attends a school that has no monetary cost and no parental financial aid forms. There are plenty of stories around these forums where the parents use this power to control the kid’s choice of college and major.</p>
<p>That’s very true.</p>
<p>However, I have felt that it is for the best not to yank on that leash too hard / too often unless you really have strong concerns. (Assuming you want your kids to still speak to you after they turn 24!)</p>
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Better to have them not speak to u at 24 as a gainfully employed engineer, etc, than have them speak to you as an unemployed or underpaid anthropologist asking u for money after u spent a quarter of a million dollars for that degree</p>
<p>A lot can happen between the time the bills are paid for a semester and when the parents find out that something went wrong. The power of the purse has a pretty long delay.</p>
<p>In the full-merit scholarship arena, the poor kids are going to be responsible for the taxable portion at the parent marginal rate, so it is probably in the student’s best interest to want to have their parents on their side and fully involved. It would be a sad situation for a full-merit scholar to have to navigate the finer points of tax penalties for not having paid estimated quarterly taxes on amounts that pertain to their parents marginal rates and still satisfy their academic demands. Yuck for the kids, and double yuck for the parents – 'cuz guess where that estimated payment would need to come from? Not the student trying to keep up their gpa to maintain the full-ride!!! If legal adulthood truly commences at 18 in our society, then everything else that ensues should keep that in perspective – get rid of the kiddie tax and base FASFA decisions solely on an 18 (or a soon-to-be 18) year-old’s financials. If the parents information was used to ANY extent to determine either financing or taxes for college, then the waiver should be automatic. Sounds like the kiddie tax could be an issue until a full time college student hits 24, so another 33% of life beyond 18. And parents need special permission??? Revamp FAFSA, revamp the taxes and then kids should be welcome, fully welcome, to be completely responsible for themselves. As long as the taxing bodies and educational systems act as though parents will be funding the education and living expenses, then the permissions should be adjusted accordingly.</p>
<p>^^ If the student is truly independent, then it is not a kiddie tax- it’s just a tax to the taxpayer, who happens to be young. If truly independent, filing his own taxes, he’d get about a $10,000 personal exemption and standard deduction. Yes, he could have income of $5000 or so, plus the taxable portion of the scholarships, but he could just have taxes withheld from the earned income. We all figured out our taxes at some point, and if the 18 or 19 year old doesn’t know how to do it, there is H&R Block or turbotax or help at the student union.</p>
<p>Some people have no parent with tax knowledge to help them, even if they are still a dependent. I’ll bet there are tons of kids who aren’t filing correctly because of scholarships, and many of them are using tax services (some aren’t that good). They have figure it out on their own. </p>
<p>The government makes it extremely difficult for a college student to be considered independent. My kids have been hit with high kiddie taxes even though we are not paying much for their education. I don’t see that as a reason that we should get a waiver though.</p>
<p>Kids can be independent for taxes by supporting themselves and claiming themselves. Many 18 year olds do it, they just aren’t in college getting FA. What is difficult is to be independent for taxes, dependent for FAFSA and other things.</p>
<p>I thought that a parent can claim exemption for child if under 19 or under 24 and fulltime student. If the parent is eligible to claim child then child cannot claim exemption himself, at least that’s how I thought it worked.</p>
<p>Of course, legal independence is not necessarily the same for income tax, college financial aid, and other things.</p>