My clients daughter was enrolled full time for the spring semester of college. she started in January and finished the second week of May. is that 5 months?

[ryanharpenau]

The IRS says they have to be a full time student for five months of the year, is that five full months or parts of five months?

Also, after she graduated she lived with her parents, used their health insurance,  lodging etc. she did buy her own car. she made $30k during the year.  It is my understanding that it doesnt matter how much she made as long as she provided less than 50% of her own support.  The parents want to claim her on their taxes to get the tuition and student loan interest deduction. Please provide direction.

[TaxGuyBill · Accepted solution]

Yes, that qualifies as 5 months.  It only needs to be parts of 5 months.

Yes, if she was under age 24 and a full-time student, the determination is if the daughter paid for over 50% of her own support, and income does not matter.  Although your description sounds like she did not provide over 50% of her own support (living with parents for the entire year), you may want to have the parents fill out and sign the support worksheet, just to verify that she did not pay for over 50% of her own support.

https://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf