<p>Can someone give me some info? Will we not be able to claim our son on our '06 taxes from I-Day on, since the navy is meeting all of his expenses? I guess if we don't claim him, can we continue to have our prospective mid on our insurance? I know with our other son who is in another university, we have to keep sending notification that he is still a student and they will carry him until a certain age.
Any feedback please?</p>
<p>Medical insurance? Why? He'll be covered by the Navy.</p>
<p>As for the taxes issue, I'd suspect you wouldn't be able to anymore...</p>
<p>They want us to keep our insurance incase we get the boot because of an injury. </p>
<p>There was a letter somewhere about it. They reccomend we keep our other insurance.</p>
<p>From the IRS website:<br>
You can generally claim someone as a dependent if you provide more than 50% of his/her support.
Appointment at a military academy is not a scholarship. Your child will get a W-2.
When is I Day? You might be able to make the criteria for dependency for this year. After that,I'm not sure -- I have friends whose children have been midshipmen and I don't remember them griping about income taxes.</p>
<p>Most families, if possible, keep their midshipmen on their health insurance policy. In the fall you may have to send your insurance company a copy of your mid's schedule which verifies they are full time students.</p>
<p>Hmm so for taxes, even though our family accountant does mine because of mutual fund interests, I need to get that info from my family and put it with my stuff (ie, rather than send my USNA stuff to my family to combine with my hometown stuff as my parents suggested)?</p>
<p>We were able to justify claiming our Mid for his Plebe Year. We did not claim him after that. We recently took him off of our insurance as well. It was becoming a pain to fill out the form twice a year to veryify his student status. Most insurance companies give you up to the age of 25 if they are full time students. I would hold on to it for the next year and then reconsider if you want to.</p>
<p>
[quote]
They want us to keep our insurance incase we get the boot because of an injury. </p>
<p>There was a letter somewhere about it. They reccomend we keep our other insurance.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No kiddin'?</p>
<p>Wow. I'm gonna have to ask my Dad if he did that back in my day. Interesting....</p>
<p>Of course, you're kid's not going to get the boot......... RIGHT? ;)</p>
<p>KEEP THE MEDICAL INSURANCE!!!!!</p>
<p>If your mid (God forbid) sustains a career ending injury while at USNA, it becomes a pre-existing condition which may prevent enrolling in medical insurance down the road. They are not in the Navy (yet) and so would not qualify for veterans' benefits if they are discharged while in school.</p>
<p>CM</p>
<p>While I can't say for certain that the same applies for Annapolis, we were advised by West Point that most likely we could NOT claim our daughter as a dependent last year. Even though she lived with us for 6 months before R Day, the operative word is "provided at least 50%" of her support. West Point estimated that they provided at least $33,000 worth of support to our daughter since R day. Unless we could document at least that amount for the first 6 months we had her at home----no deduction. I can't remeber the specifics of the breakdown of the dollar amount. We were also advised to keep her on our family insurance if possible.</p>
<p>You may be able to get away with keeping them on your insurance. Most benefit programs will cover "dependents" that are full-time students up to the age of 25. If you can no longer claim your child as a dependent, your benefit program should not cover them either. Our tax consultant said that we could claim our Mid for the year that he began as a Plebe. After that, he was no longer our dependent. We dropped him from our insurance at that point as a dependent as well since it seemed like the proper thing to do.</p>
<p>Here's the tax information provided by USMA to the Plebes last year. It's a breakdown and explanation of the $33,000 value Shogun referenced. I don't know how the USNA support for cadets differs. Sorry for the spacing.</p>
<p>MEMORANDUM FOR FOURTH CLASS CADETS</p>
<p>SUBJECT: Income Tax Information</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Many of you as fourth class cadets have questions concerning the income tax consequences of cadet pay and allowances. This memo provides information from the standpoint of both your tax return and your parents' return for 2005. It is very important that you share this data with your parents.</p></li>
<li><p>This memo is based on the tax laws and current rulings of treasury officials. It is, however, informative only and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the Internal Revenue Service or the Department of the Army.</p></li>
<li><p>All cadets at the Academy must file their own income tax returns.
Each fourth class cadet who entered the Academy on 27 June 2005, and
remained through 31 December 2005, has received or had credited to their
account during 2005 base pay of $5,030.56. Cadets must report this
amount as income from the Army. In addition, each cadet received a
$5,060.00 pay advance to assist with the payments of uniforms,
textbooks, computer, software and various school fees.</p></li>
<li><p>Your parent(s)/guardian(s) must have contributed more than half
of your support for the year in order to claim you as an income tax
exemption "More than half the support" refers to dollar value, and
not to the length of time support was furnished. Your parent or
guardian may properly include the cost of board, clothing, lodging,
medical and dental care, education, property and furniture, insurance, etc., they furnished you when they calculated their level of support. If you lived at home during the first six months of 2005, your parent or guardian may include a proportionate amount of the family food bill, utilities, rent or house payments, interest, taxes, etc., as part of your support. If you attended college, prep school, or high school prior to entering the Military Academy, your parents may also include the amount they paid for tuition, books,
school supplies, and transportation to and from school as parental support.</p></li>
<li><p>In determining the value of support furnished from sources other
than your parents, you must include both taxed and untaxed support
amounts. This simply means that the portion of your taxable pay
spent on your own support must be included, and in addition, the
support provided by the Army in the form of food, lodging, education
and other services must also be included. Even though the value of
Army support is not taxed as income, the value must be considered
when determining who provided more than half of your support. The
following chart indicates values of support furnished by yourself and
by the Army.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>MARM-FO-MA-T (1)
SUBJECT: Income Tax Information</p>
<p>Cadet Pay earned from 27 June through 31 December - $5,030.56
Government Pay Advance - $5,060.00</p>
<p>Subsistence (Meals)
27 June through 30 September - $ 609.60
1 October through 31 December - $ 598.00</p>
<p>Room and Board $1,480.50
(Half year per USMA's FY04 Cost of Education Report) </p>
<p>Education(2004 tuition cost per semester at the USMA - $20,818.50</p>
<p>TOTAL SUPPORT BY THE CADET AND BY THE ARMY - $33,597.16</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In our opinion, if your parent has not provided at least $33,597.16 in support, then your parent may not be able to claim you as an exemption. If your parent has provided more than this amount in support, then your parent is entitled to claim you as an exemption. Under IRS regulations, if your parent can claim you, you cannot claim a personal exemption for yourself, and you will have to complete a worksheet to compute your standard deduction.</p></li>
<li><p>The question may arise whether an appointment to the Military
Academy can be considered a "scholarship award" within the meaning of
the income tax laws. The Internal Revenue Service has ruled that
such an appointment is not a scholarship award and that the education
provided by the Military Academy must, therefore, be included as an
item of support furnished by the Army.</p></li>
<li><p>I trust that the information provided, although necessarily general in nature, will be of assistance to you and your family. The above information is provided to ensure that you and your parent(s)/guardian(s) have sufficient data to calculate income tax returns.</p></li>
<li><p>Any questions by your parent(s)/guardian(s) concerning the proper methods of calculating dependency should be resolved through independent legal counsel, Publication 17, and/or contact the Internal Revenue Service
/s/
THOMAS M. REMO
ActingTreasurer, USMA</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks Aspen---I never would have found it :)</p>