<p>Can anyone tell me is my college student will qualify as my tax dependent if he lives in off campus housing 12 months of the year-assuming he meets all of the rest of the dependency requirements? I'm having trouble interpreting the section regarding temporary absence. </p>
<p>If I am covering the cost of the rent (or contributing to a good portion of it) does that make a difference?<br>
Apparently whether or not he can be claimed as my tax dependent affects his health insurance coverage as well so I would like to make sure that living in an off-campus apartment doesn't cause problems with his coverage.</p>
<p>Yes, you can claim your college student, who lives away from home 12 months, as your dependent, assuming all other requirements are met.</p>
<p>Those requirements being support test, relationship test etc. Just wasn’t sure if the 12 mo of off campus housing would prevent him from meeting the living with me 1/2 the year qualification.<br>
Its not the dependency right to claim that I am most concerned with–its the thought that he could lose his health insurance coverage through my employer if he isn’t listed as my dependent on my return. I’m willing to pay housing/misc items so that he is able to meet the requirement and keep the important H I coverage. I can’t seem to get a clear answer from my human relations department. Just the beginning of the first semester he fell and broke his wrist. Without coverage that alone could have set him bank a chunk of change.</p>
<p>The IRS allows full-time students to spend time away from home to go to school. This time away is considered a temporary absence and still counts toward the more than half year he must reside with you to be considered a dependent. So if he goes to school for 8 months, he has met his residency requirement even if he stays away from you the rest of the year.</p>
<p>Insurance companies may have different requirements, but they do not typically require a student to live with you to be eligible.</p>
<p>Our son has not been our dependent on IRS forms recently while paying for an apartment as a student and we have had no problems with our group health insurance coverage. We are still paying his expenses but our very honest tax preparer said it saved money for him to get the allowable deductions as his own and not our dependent. He also does accounting for H’s workplace and so would know about insurance coverage.</p>
<p>I have no problem with him claiming himself when he no longer qualifys as my dependent. I also am willing to pay towards his off campus housing-especially if it means he would lose health insurance coverage if he would not be my dependent (me not paying >1/2 his expenses). I’m not looking for a way to “scam” anything-just the opposite-looking for the way we should be handling things financially to make sure #1 he benefits the mosts financially and #2 he is legally covered by by health insurance.</p>
<p>This all came up because I got an e-mail from my HR department that says at the end of the year that he turns 19 , if he is not claimed as a dependent on my taxes, it could have tax implications regarding my health insurance coverage. Their answers have been really vague by e-mail so I guess I’ll try calling.<br>
Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>My experience is that HR departments aren’t willing to commit to anything. I’d call the insurance company for the straight dope. They know the details of the contract and plan.</p>
<p>I second a–dad. Our insurance company doesn’t care about the tax status. Yours may, you need to find out directly from the insurance company. The HR dept may want as few dependents as possible so they can save money on the company’s group health insurance costs. Fortunately the IRS doesn’t care if we support son and don’t declare him, so we keep it legal and he saves some tax money (I said he on purpose- we have made his investment quarterly tax payments but any refunds go to him and of course he doesn’t volunteer to reimburse us. Kids are very good at accepting money, but somehow not at giving back the extra- when you give them $20 for something that money is gone, even if the fast food they dashed in for cost far less).</p>