<prompt> Human: My fiance graduated from a public university in early May of 2014. After he graduated, he moved in with me and I financially supported him along with some support from his own savings until he was accepted into a military scholarship program and started medical school much more expensive than the state school. He also gets a stipend from the military for his living expenses - we split our combined expenses evenly between the two of us.I recently got my tax return from the IRS and out of curiosity I asked my fiance if he had filed his taxes yet. He said his father had asked him not to file until they filed so that they could claim him as a dependent. I got pretty upset - mostly because I was reminded of when three years ago I went through the painful ordeal with my parents of filing my own independent return and not allowing them to claim me as a dependent looking at all of the IRS rules and crunching the numbers, they didnt qualify to claim me as a dependent. IMO - my fiance has several thousand dollars worth of tax credits he is entitled to, and his parents are trying to buck the system to save a bit of change I believe their financial issues are their own problem. If his federal refund is more than his parents would save on their taxes, I especially dont feel its right for them to try to claim him has a dependent.I should also note that I work full-time and I am the more financially experienced and savvy one in this relationship. What would you do in this situation? Im not trying to control my fiances finances or want that refund for myself its his. But I also feel like he has a knowledge gap with finances, and his parents are technically violating the law and preventing him from getting money that he is entitled to. Ultimately I will respect his decision - but I want to empower him with financial knowledge. I even suggested that he do the numbers and see what the difference between his return and the savings his parents would have on their taxes, and possibly pay them what they would have saved because they did partially support him last year.  <response>: As has already been said, hes either a dependent or hes not; its not a choice. And if he isnt a dependent, and they claim him when they file, its tax fraud. Thats really all the financial knowledge him, or they, even need to know. Theyre committing fraud. If they continue doing it, and are doing it knowingly, theyre going to face consequences. If its an issue of him wanting to file his own taxes, and theyre saying theyre going to claim him anyway, there are ways to deal with that. Hell need to file by mailing in his return. The system will notice his SSN was used twice, and send letters to both parties to resolve the issue. That will mean his refund will be delayed, so its better for him to deal with it on his own with his parents 