<p>Hello. I am a 20 year old full-time university student that lives on my own and works a part-time job at my university. I use financial aid refunds from school to help pay for additional expenses beyond rent, food, gasoline and my phone bill (my part time job barely covers those things). I receive no financial support from parents, and I currently am on Medicaid Under 21 medical insurance provided by the State of Michigan. They have been claiming me on taxes as an adult for the past two years. </p>
<p>When would they NOT be able to claim me? I have not fought them claiming me since they are the only ones that can fill out my FAFSA, and I have been paying extra taxes for the past two years so they can do that. In addition, I plan on graduating in May 2014 and may have to attend summer school, meaning there's still a chance that they could legally claim me. </p>
<p>I really am tired of tax time every year because of this. Last year, I offered to put my parent's H&R Block bill on my credit card so my FAFSA would get filled out quicker (My school offers need-based scholarships that use information from the FAFSA). I explained that, if I did that, they could get their refund quicker and pay me back for the bill (they were going to use the tax refund to pay it anyway). Their response was that I would get stuck with the bill and they wouldn't give me anything to help pay it. Needless to say, I gave up on getting extra scholarships from my school that year and the loan money that would've counted towards summer school ended up going to this school year to cover tuition and other school/life expenses.</p>
<p>So wait…you’re saying that, although my parents provide me no financial support whatsoever (I forgot to mention that I play my own car insurance as well), I can still be legally claimed by them as dependent just because of FAFSA and school?</p>
<p>If you are, then that’s ridiculous. I’m literally suffering in poverty for no fault of my own. I can’t even claim myself as independent just because I decided to go straight to university out of high school instead of waiting until I was 25.</p>
<p>I know how you feel man. Well, for FAFSA you can’t claim yourself as independent unless you’re officially married or have a kid (or join the army or something along those lines). And there are those more obvious ones (be above 24/25 etc.)</p>
<p>However, you can claim yourself as independent on tax forms, but I don’t think that will be very useful for financial aid purposes. It is useful to me right now because I can establish residency this way. I just filled out the tax application yesterday. I used “freedom edition” from turbotax. Google it. It’s easy, you just have to put your mind to it for an hour or so (probably less). </p>
<p>They ask you “can anyone else claim you as dependent?” when you’re filling the application out, then just say “no”. That’s what I did. Sue me. Lol well they can’t because I’m almost 100% sure that on taxes we can say that, AS LONG AS YOUR PARENT IS NOT CLAIMING YOU AS A DEPENDENT. This is important. Tell your parents NOT TO CLAIM YOU. That’s what I did, and my pops was cool with it.</p>
<p>Sorry I was on my phone and couldn’t type well. </p>
<p>The law says that you have to provide half of your support. As you’re on financial aid, even if they’re providing nothing they can still legally claim you IIRC. They don’t have to but they can.</p>
<p>Your dependency on taxes has zero to do with FAFSA.</p>
<p>You can fill out your FAFSA before filing your taxes. Use your best estimates. </p>
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<p>I’m sorry, I don’t understand this. How (why?) did you give up?</p>
<p>Even though your parents fill out the FAFSA and the federal government considers their income in deciding your eligibility for federal financial, this does NOT mean that they can legally claim you as a dependent if they are providing less than half of your support. </p>
<p>For your parents to claim you as a dependent, all four of these criteria need to be met:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Relationship the person must be your child, step child, adopted child, foster child, brother or sister, or a descendant of one of these (for example, a grandchild or nephew). </p></li>
<li><p>Residence for more than half the year, the person must have the same residence as you do. (If you live at school, but still stay with them in the summer and consider their address to be your permanent residence, then you do meet this criteria)</p></li>
<li><p>Age the person must be
under age 19 at the end of the year, or
under age 24 and a be a full-time student for at least five months out of the year, or
any age and totally and permanently disabled.</p>
<ul>
<li>Support the person did not provide more than half of his or her own support during the year. This is the one it sounds like your parents fail to meet.<br></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<p>If ANY ONE OF THESE four is not true, then you should be taking yourself as a dependent. That is the law, and is not open to the whims of your parents just because they would like the deduction.</p>
<p>If you and your parent claims you as a dependent, it is likely that you will both get audited. So settle this with your parents before filing.</p>
<p>No but the student must be providing half of their own support. If the student is on FA and just has a PT job, it is unlikely that the OP qualifies as providing more than half of their support. </p>
<p>If I’m reading this correctly, then the parents do not necessarily need to be providing half of the student’s support as long as the student is not providing at least half of his/her support. This was language that was changed relatively recently so that more parents could claim their kids even with substantial financial aid.</p>
<p>You cannot claim a personal exemption if someone else can claim you as a dependent, regardless of whether they actually take that deduction for you. (See below.)</p>
<p>There are two more practical issues here. One is health insurance. Some insurance providers in the past have refused to cover students on their family’s plan as dependents if the student has filed an independent tax return. I don’t know if this has changed with ObamaCare, but it’s certainly something to look out for. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I’d be careful not to upset my parents as long as I relied on their support, e.g. for a FAFSA application or a free room in the summer.</p>