Question

Dependent or file independently? - 23 yo fulltime grad student

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
February 23, 2022
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I have a 23 year old who is currently a full-time grad school student. She passes all the qualification for me to claim her as a dependent this year as I have in the past. She did have both earned and unearned income this year and always files a separate return (but as my dependent). Is she "allowed" to file independently even tho technically she is still a dependent? Im thinking this would allow for her to pay less taxes since our tax bracket is much higher than what hers would be.

M

MinhT1

If she has earned and unearned income, she has to file her own tax return and she is taxed at her tax brackets, and not yours, whether she is a dependent or not.

On the question of claiming your child as a dependent:

If your daughter is under 19 (or under 24 and a full time student) and she does not provide more than half of his own support for the tax year, you can claim her as a dependent.

You do have the choice of not claiming her. If you do not claim her, then you lose the Other dependent credit of $500 and you cannot claim her education credit from her form 1098-T.

As for your daughter, on her own tax return, she is asked the question whether she paid more than half of her living expenses with earned income. If the answer is No, then she must say that she can claimed as a dependent by someone else. And she will not be eligible for the stimulus payments.

If someone can claim her as a dependent but does not actually claim him, she can claim the non-refundable part of the American Opportunity credit, but not the refundable part.

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