Kevin and Melissa Guymon are husband and wife and have elected to file a joint return for 2020. Kevin is 66 years old and Melissa is 64 years old. Neither of them qualifies as being legally blind. They provide more than half of the support of their daughter, Katrina, (age 25), who is a full time MAcc student and was not employed at anytime during the year. Katrina received a scholarship in 2020 for $32,000, which was applied toward her MAcc tuition costs and textbooks.

a. Can Katrina be claimed as a qualifying child or qualifying relative in 2020? Please explain your reasoning.

Kevin and Melissa furnish all of the support of their son, Simon (age 19). Simon graduated from high school in 2019 and intends to begin college during Spring Semester of 2021. Currently he is working a full time job which paid a total of $27,000 in 2020. Simon spent less than $2,000 on his own support and saved the remainder of each paycheck to cover future college expenses.

b. Can Simon be claimed as a qualifying child or qualifying relative in 2020? Please explain your reasoning.

Kevin and Melissa also provide more than half of the support for Melissa’s father, Cesar, who resided in an assisted living center. Unfortunately, Cesar lived less than 3 weeks during 2020 and died on January 19, 2020.

c. Can Cesar be claimed as a qualifying child or qualifying relative in 2020? Please explain your reasoning.