Married Daughter

[Mike Corrigan]

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This is for some friends.

They are married couple, whose daughter got married 10/2009. They supported their daughter up until the time she got married. They also paid college expenses for her in 2009.

A few weeks ago their daughter informed them that her and her husband did their taxes. The tax preparer that did their taxes told the daughter to inform her parents "they can't claim her as a dependent, but can still put her on their taxes to claim the college expense. They just have to check a box"

My question is what box would that be?

My suggestion to my friends was to let their daughter claim the college expense, and for them to consider the money they paid as a gift to their daughter.

[Taxhound]

Yeah, whoever prepared their return told them wrong. If they're not claiming her as a dependent, they can't claim the education expenses they paid for her.

Two things can happen in this situation. One is they allow their daughter to claim the expenses and thus she gets a benefit on her return, but not theirs. The other is that they claim he as a dependent, and they take the expenses and the exemption.

Now, the second option may be a little sticky. You say they supported her for more than half the year. If that's true, and she meets the rest of the qualifications, they should claim her as a dependent. The fact that she filed w/ her husband does not negate that fact. Even if she filed w/ him, if they filed only to get a refund and if they filed separately they would not have a tax liability, then the parents can claim their daughter. It might tick off the daughter, but it would be their right.

Like I said though, either way would work. Hopefully the tuition they paid wasn't more than 13k.