<p>My son is coming home from out of state for this fall semester at community college. Their policy is that if you have been living out of state and aren't a dependent on your parents tax return, you aren't instate any more. He is 21 and aged out of the income tax deduction. He has come home for weeks at a time but has spent 4 semesters at the out of state school and worked at a camp in that state in the summers. Anyone have any insight into this? </p>
<p>He goes to a religious school that doesn't have gen ed classes but requires some of those courses and the students can take them at any regular college. He didn't sign up for those courses at the state college within walking distance of his school because he assumed he wasn't a resident of that state and would get an out of state rate there. He is going out of the country for an internship for the spring and plans to return to his original school in the fall of 2012. So I don't know if he can get instate tuition in the state he goes to college in either.</p>
<p>If your son is a dependent student, he is still your dependent for income tax. OR does he have enough income so that he doesn’t state he is a dependent when he files himself?</p>
<p>I am not sure of the answer to your question. He has very little income (less than $2,000 per year). It is my understanding that he files independently because he is too old for us to claim him. My husband does the taxes and I will ask him tonight.</p>
<p>I am assuming that your son still considers his real home to be with you…that he lives at school because he is a student there, and not that he has made a completely independent transition. After all, he cannot be living independently on what he made last year!</p>
<p>Your son has aged out of the child tax credit (because he is over 16) but he is still your dependent and you are still able to claim his income tax exemption ( a different thing entirely)</p>
<p>Your son can file his tax return indicating that he is being claimed as an exemption on another return, and generally get back any withholding that was taken out of his pay checks ( but not his social security or medicare contributions).</p>
<p>It is not too late for both you and your son to amend your returns and receive any additional refund you might have coming.</p>
<p>I am a tax preparer for H&R Block. If your son is a full time student under the age of 24, then he is your dependent whether he likes it or not. You may not pass his exemption on to him, either you take it or not, he can’t.</p>
<p>Go ahead and call the community college and talk to their admissions staff. Theirs is the only opinion that matters. If you get an answer you like, make sure you write down the staff member’s name for your files (so later you can say “Lorretta Lovely said . . .”). If you get a wishy washy answer, keep adding information that supports your case ("He graduated from Local High and . . . ").
If you get a “no”, then ask what he would need to do to be considered a resident. </p>
<p>Even if he is a nonresident, check out what that would cost. For one course while he lives at home, it may be affordable.</p>
<p>If your son was a full time student until now…his PERMANENT address is yours…in the state in which you reside. My kids both went to college out of state but were able to take community college courses during the summers (neither did but they could have) as instate students. Likewise, if they had transferred to one of our public universities, they would have been considered instate students.</p>
<p>Well, he decided not to pursue taking classes this semester, to my disappointment. We own property in another community college district which is equally convenient. Their policy distinctly states that if one’s parents own property in the district the students gets in district tuition even if the student doesn’t live on the property. We could have enrolled him there. But he changed his mind and doesn’t want to take any classes and will plan on working a lot of hours to save up money to go abroad for 3 months and return to his college next fall. I am glad for the heads up for his younger siblings. It seems one key is to not go more than a certain number of semesters without taking a class. Now that I know that, I can play the system if needed. The policy seems incorrect to begin with though and I will be investigating the policy more thoroughly. </p>
<p>We couldn’t claim him on our taxes as we did not contribute to more than one half of his support. He is living and going to school (very inexpensive school) on money he saved throughout high school. That money will run out soon, which is why he took time off to work.</p>