Big question for folks filling out their tax forms, can parents claim their adult children, who've moved back home, on their income taxes?
The struggling economy has forced many young adults to go back home to live with mom and dad.. However, the IRS rules are strict about claiming adult dependents, simply providing housing doesn't qualify.
A qualifying dependent must have been under 19 at the end of the year or 24 and a full time student. Also the adult child must have lived with the parent for more than half the year.
If the age test fails, claiming the child as a "qualifying relative" might work if the adult child earned less than the amount of the personal exemption, but working a part-time job usually renders the child ineligible.
