<prompt> Human: A long drawn out story made short. Ive been living in South Carolina for nearly 2 years. I moved on March 26th, 2013. I have been to doctors here, held jobs here, and attended school here. My mother has always depended on her refund checks to fund some extravagance. Im not here to speak ill against her financial decisions, but she claimed me on her taxes last year when Id been residing in SC for a year. She sent me a copy of her tax forms and claimed that Id been living in Florida prior home state for all of 2013. I hadnt been. With her claiming me in Florida, I was charged out of state tuition at school, despite me having many documents proving Id been residing here. It was my fault for not following up with this dispute though. My mother and I do not have a balanced enough relationship for us to reasonably discuss this and for change to definitely occur. Its tax time again and she called to ask me if I wanted to have her claim me on her taxes. I told her no, and that Id file myself. However, I dont believe that me just telling her not to claim me will work. I talk to family members and they tell me that she knows what is right, and she can do as she pleases. I cannot afford out of state tuition again. I have the maximum amount of resources to pay for school; savings, grants, government aid, the whole nine yards. There is no chance to get family help. Ive talked to my schools financial aid office many, many times and they tell me the same thing: if my mother has claimed me in a state that isnt the one I currently go to school in, my residency is technically in that state and I will be charged with out of state tuition accordingly. There is a family issue here, but Im not here for that. I need to know what I can do to protect myself and assure that I can finally be considered an in state student. I have worked a job in the past year, and planned to file taxes. Is that all that can be done? Any insight would be extremely helpful.Assistant: IRS employee here. Sorry about your family issues. I cant really respond to your schools policy of how they determine your residency, but if a transcript of your tax return is sufficient, then I have good news for you. If you are qualified to claim your own dependency exemption, you should claim it no matter what your mother decides to do. The issue may come up when trying to e-File if she already claimed you for the year. It will not allow you to file electronically and you will have to print your return, sign it and mail it in. This will cause a longer processing time for your return and refund, unfortunately.If this is the case, you will also receive a notice about the fact that your social security number was claimed as a dependent on more than one tax return. At this point again, assuming that you are legally able to claim your own exemption you do nothing. Your mother will receive the same notice and will have to amend her return to remove the exemption.If neither of you do anything, youll eventually have to prove that youre able to claim your own exemption, and provide documentation as such. If you have in fact been living out of state, your mother will have trouble proving her ability to claim your dependency exemption.Let me know if you have any other questions. Best of luck!Human: This helps a TON. Thank you, Im going to try and file as soon as I possibly can, preferably before she does. As long as any discrepancy is known, and I can prove with all of my documents that Ive been here in SC, Ill be a happy camper because everything else will sort itself out.Assistant: Do you have any documentation of your housing? Thats normally the easiest and most concrete proof in situations like yours. Human: Yes I do.  <response>: Having a lease is good, as well as utility bills and any other bills that list your address. If you havent already, you should also change your drivers license and your car registration to your permanent address in SC. If your ID shows you living in FL and your car is registered there, that might imply that FL is your permanent address and SC is only where you stay while in school. 