My daughter is a freshman in college. She started college in August 2008. She has a job (started mid August) in addition to going to school. My wife passed away back in 2003 and had a life insurance policy where my daughter was the beneficiary. My daughter filed a claim and received her money this past year (2008).

Will my daughter need to claim this money as income on her tax return?

Can I claim my daughter on my tax return for the 2008 year being that I provided for her for over half of the year? I understand this would mean that she would have to mark the "You" box to question 5 (1040EZ for 2008) where it asks if you can be claimed on someone else's return.

Which way, stated above or otherwise, is the best way for my daughter and I to file our taxes? The only real question about my taxes is whether or not I can claim her. For her the questions are whether or not she has to claim the insurance money on her tax return. If you have any other ideas or suggested legitimate ways of filing our taxes, then please make your suggestion.

I will be filing my taxes hopefully in the next couple of days. I have all of my documents and forms I need.

Thank you for you time.