Tax question: Should high income parents claim their college student child as a dependent?

@mommdc

No, not this year. She only has about $5000 in earned income from two summer jobs and a school job.

But to clarify, would it be earned income equal to 50% of her portion of support? ($46k), 50% of my support ($25k)? or 50% of her entire support ($71k)? It would make a difference because this year she has a summer job that will pay somewhere around $25k which added up with her school job might get up to a point where she can meet the earned income test. I could also adjust where the payments come from to pay her tuition (from her account or my account) to get her closer to the 50% number, but that wouldn’t make a difference if the calculation is based on her entire support.