My daughter is a full time college student and lives at school. She had a small amount of income in 2016. If I claim her, can she avoid doing taxes for herself?

It's complicated.

But the simple answer is $1700 of wage income is not enough to have to file, whether she is someone's dependent or not. She is allowed to file if she needs to get back income tax withholding. She cannot get back social security or Medicare tax withholding.

A bigger question is should she file an amended return for 2015, unclaiming herself so that one of the parents (most likely the custodial parent) can file an amended return to claim her. The answer is almost assuredly yes.

For tax purposes, she does not "live at school". She lived at the custodial parent's  house all year and was only temporarily away at school.

A child of a taxpayer can still be a “Qualifying Child” (QC) dependent, regardless of his/her income, if:

1. He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or is totally & permanently disabled

2. He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support. Scholarships are considered third party support and not as support provided by the student.

3. He lived with the parent (including temporary absences such as away at school) for more than half the year

So, it doesn't matter how much he/she earned. What matters is how much he spent on support. Money he put into savings does not count as support he spent on him self. The support value of the home the parent provided is the fair market rental value of the home plus utilities & other expenses divided by the number of occupants.

Furthermore, there is a rule that says IF somebody else CAN claim him as a dependent, he is not allowed to claim his own exemption. If he has sufficient income (usually more than $6300), he can & should still file taxes; he just doesn’t get his own $4050 exemption (deduction). In TurboTax, he indicates that somebody else can claim him as a dependent, at the personal information section.