I 2 several questions that are somewhat related.

1.) If parents of a student pay for that student's 2009 spring tuition on, say Dec 20th of 2008, is that money considered 'support' in determining dependency status for tax year 2009? I have a situation in which, including the tuition for spring semester the student passes the 'provided less than 1/2 support' but excluding the spring semester tuition fails the 'provided less than 1/2 support'.

2) Lets say a college student graduates in May. His parents have paid his spring tuition(say $15000) And Rent for January to May ($3000). Upon graduation, the student immediately (June 1) begins working at a job and paying for his own apartment. He does not live with his parents. He does not make very much money, however ($14000 from June to Dec).

In (2) it seems that the child passes the "provided less than 1/2 of his own support" test.

However, he fails the 'resided with parents for 6mos or more' residency test, therefore the child is not eligible to be claimed a a dependent on parents tax return due only to failing the residency requirement.