Question about claiming yourself and someone else trying to claim you..?

I'm a 20 year old college student. I work part time and I pay rent to live in my fathers house. I paid rent all of last year and I was planning on claiming myself because of that. My father is telling me that he is going to claim me and there is nothing I can do about it. He isn't declaring my rent as income and I want to claim myself. Is there any way I can make it so he can't claim me? Can I deduct my rent payments on my taxes? I don't really want to report him or anything for not declaring some of his income. What can I do?

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Answer:
You cannot deduct rent, (wish you could) Yes you can claim yourself, but in the form you have to state that someone else can claim you also, this does lesson the deduction for both of you. If you are getting Stafford loans or grants for college his claiming you is also a bad idea, because then his and your incomes must be claimed for attaining them esp the grants, which could end up costing both of you more, than what he would receive. Two other things, at 18 you are an adult and have the right to claim yourself, second if he is receiving rent that is determined to be income, and as income is taxable, and also should be included as income for any grants. File before he does, claim yourself after filing tell him you did it, you can file for free online in less than 20 minutes. Sorry he will be the one in trouble with the IRS

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Answer:
If he provided more than 50% of your support than he gets to claim you. You may have paid rent, but who paid tuition, food, health insurance, etc? If you supported yourself and the rent was about the same as living outside the home than you should claim yourself. But if he claims you and you claim yourself the IRS will notice.

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Answer:
First of all, you are his child, you are not paying rent, you are paying some of your own expenses. You can't deduct anything anyway if you only worked part time. You will most likely get all of your witholding back. But your dad can claim you & he is not doing anything wrong by doing it.

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Answer:
Because you are a full-time college student under the age of 24, your dad has the right to claim you as a dependent on his tax return. It does not matter if you live with your dad or in a dorm. If you have a 1098-t from the college that you went to, your dad can also use the form to claim the education credit on his return if he claim you as a dependent. Nobody can deduct rent payments on a tax return. If you dad can also add your rent payment as part of his income if he wants to.