24 year old not living at home

I take it 24-yr old son was not a full time student in any five months of 2008?

Gross income test probably applies - dependent son gross income must be less than $3500.

Publication 17 is the textbook, but it has gotten smaller and less useful in the past several years.

Pub 501 contains the dependency exemption rules is a pretty hard to understand format. It talks about uniform rules for qualifying child, which are anything but uniform and you don't have to be a child to qualify. And if a person is not a qualifying child of any taxpayer (a specific term in itself) then that person might be considered to see if he is a qualifying relative. It's really all in Pub 501 and it correct, so if you like a challenge, go for it.

Also a child who was not yet age 17 by year end might qualify for child tax credit. And if the child did not gain parent the stimulus rebate last year, try again this year.

And if son is not a dependent only vecause his gross income is more than

There is the possibility that he already filed, even with no tax due in order to have availed himself of the stimulus payment. Check it out.

You can find the 1040 instructions on irs.gov website and save a copy of it to disk to peruse later with Adobe reader.

ChEAr$, Harlan

I will kick my 2¢ in because been there, done that - and this is really not a tax question.

What qualifies at a dependent for *company insurance* purposes might not have anything to do with what the IRS uses for *tax* purposes. Forget the IRS and find our what the company insurance plan considered a dependent.