student on full ride - who provides 1/2 support

Paying for College
1

<p>Hypothetically, as it is a true situation for many. Let's say that kid is on a full ride scholarship, so when it comes time to file taxes... is the child still a dependent? Did the parent really provide more than 1/2 financial support? Or would it be an issue of however much money the student did spend .. who provided 1/2 + of that?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

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<p>Since the school isn’t going to declare the child a dependent I would as the parent if the child came home on breaks (like summer). If the child supported him/herself over the summer, though, I would probably say the child.</p>

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<p>From the IRS website:

</p>

<p>Here is the link: [Publication</a> 17 (2011), Your Federal Income Tax](<a href=“http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch03.html]Publication”>http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch03.html)</p>

<p>It is therefore very likely that the parent provided more than 1/2 the child’s support–think of housing and food over school vacations, clothing, car or use of a car, car insurance, health insurance, etc.</p>

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<p>^ thanks for the info!</p>

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<p>Crazymomster, if you are asking because it would be advantageous for your child to take his or her own deduction (adding that 3700 to the 5700) you could reasonably argue this to be true. But in so-doing, you would be wasting the American Opportunity credit, because they will NOT count the scholarship money toward proving the 50% rule in order to give back the refundable $1,000 portion of the AO. </p>

<p>In the latter case, if your student is having to, for example, pay tax on scholarship money and if that same scholarship money can be applied to housing instead of qualified tax exempt tuition and fees, you would be further ahead to claim the child as a dependent, take the AO credit refund, and pay for your child’s tax liability ;)</p>

<p>However, if you mean TRUE full ride, wherein there are truly no expenses or student loans of any kind, then the AO would not likely be available to you. In that case it makes sense to have the student file independently, thereby getting the extra 3700 to offset tax liability.</p>