Can my parents claim just my college tuition if thats all they pay for?

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Im 21, I’ve been living on my own for 2 years.I pay for all of my bills. My parents want to claim me as dependent for tax purposes. I want to claim as independent so I can get my full refund and get my rebate check in may. All they pay for is my college, is there any way they can claim just my tuition?
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Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 1:27 am. Posted in Parenting. Tags: , , , , . You can follow this web articles through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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3 Responses to “Can my parents claim just my college tuition if thats all they pay for?”

  1. The only way they can take an education credit is if you are their dependent or was their dependent when they paid the tuition. If you college fees are more than the support you pay you may not be providing more than half of your own support which means they can claim you.

  2. If you are away from home at school, you’re still considered to be living in your parents’ home. They can still claim you as a dependent unless you provide more than half of your OWN support. College tuition in included in that calculation so it’s very likely that they can still claim you even if you are paying the rest of your expenses.

    See IRS Pub 501 and the support worksheet to see if they can still claim you as a dependent. If they can, you lose your personal exemption even if they don’t claim you. This isn’t a “pick and choose” decision; you must abide by the law on the matter.

    For them to claim any of the educational credits or deductions they MUST claim you as a dependent. And if they can’t claim you as a dependent then nobody can claim them as you didn’t pay them.

  3. If you don’t live with them for over half the year, then they can’t claim you as a dependent. If they can’t claim you as a dependent, they can’t deduct your tuition.

    Time away at school would be considered as living with them if their address is still your home address.

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