Janitor Bob Posted February 26, 2011 Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 I think I understand this, but please read through and see if you agree. Client is age 21. Did not live with his parents and received no support from them....he provided 100% of his own support. Has education expenses. Since cannot be claimed by parents, he can claim the educations credits...correct? Client's girlfriend, age 19, lived with client all of 2010. She also received no support from her parents. Girlfriend had zero income, but had education expenses. Client should claim her as a dependent and claim her education expenses as well....correct? Oh...and on top of this, they have a child and get EIC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacun Posted February 26, 2011 Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 Yes to all of them. American Oportunity credit for himself and for herself and EIC because of child. All those credits to his return. I didn't see that your dependent has to be blood related in order to claim eduction credits, so you should be OK. You didn't specified if they lived with her parents, which I believe they didn't. (I don't think you would miss that piece of info on your question). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clay Posted February 26, 2011 Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 Regarding the American Opportunity Credit, either the parents or the child can claim the credit (see pages 13-14 of Pub 970). This works if the parents income is too high. Child should be able to obtain at least the $1000 refundable part of the credit, more if his income is high enough. Work it both ways to see if the benefit of the parent's claiming the child outweighs the child claiming the expense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcjenkins Posted February 26, 2011 Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 Clay, his parents can not claim him when they did not support him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacun Posted February 26, 2011 Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 Clay, his parents can not claim him when they did not support him. I will add... his parents cannot claim him because he didn't live with them and he provided more than 50% of his own support. It seems that my original answer will stand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clay Posted February 26, 2011 Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 Sorry folks, I got sidetracked and was just commenting in general about the AOC, not the specifics of the original post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cathy Posted February 26, 2011 Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 Sorry folks, I got sidetracked and was just commenting in general about the AOC, not the specifics of the original post. You are forgiven....this time. :spaz: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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