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April 6, 2025
Question

College Student Dependent with Earned Income and Taxes Withheld, but with Unearned Income Too?

  • April 6, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

I am a 19-year-old full-time college student with a part-time job and who is a dependent. I earned $5,500 at my work in earned income and had some taxes withheld. In addition, I have a few low-dollar stocks that only made around $25 for the year. Because I am under the standard deduction, I would like to file a tax return to gain my withheld taxes, but my negligible amount of unearned income is trying to get me to pay for the premium turbo tax account. If I did the premium turbo tax account, I wouldn't be gaining much, and it wouldn't be worth filing. Is there a free option to file my taxes with both earned and unearned income, or is there a way to leave off the unearned income because it is such a small amount and well below $1,400? Then again, if my unearned income is so low, do I even have to report it on my tax filing?

    1 reply

    Employee
    April 6, 2025

    You could look at the IRS direct file site here. 

    https://directfile.irs.gov/

     

    Or you could leave your investment income off of your return but recognizing that technically all income must be reported.