My child is a student attending college and working part-time.
Does he have to file a tax return?
Whether he has to file a tax return depends on his filing status, age, and gross
income. Assuming he is a U.S. citizen or resident alien, and he is not blind, he must file
a return if he can be claimed as a dependent on another person's return, he had any
unearned income, and his total income was more than $650. Examples of unearned income are
taxable interest, dividends, capital gains, and trust distributions. A dependent with
earned income must file a return only if his or her gross income is more than his or her
standard deduction amount. Examples of earned income are wages, tips, and salaries. For
more details, refer to Tax Topic 351, Who Must File, or the
instructions in your tax package, or Publication 929, Tax Rules
for Children and Dependents, or Publication 501, Exemptions,
Standard Deduction, and Filing Information.
Can Form 1040EZ be used to claim the earned income credit?
?
The earned income credit can be claimed on Form 1040EZ, however, several requirements
must be met to use Form 1040EZ. If you do not meet all of them, you must use Form 1040A or
Form 1040. For additional information on the requirements, refer to Tax
Topic 352, Which Form - 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ.
I'm single, live alone, and have no dependents. Can I file as
head of household?
No. To use this filing status, you must have paid over half the cost of keeping up a
home for you and a child or other qualifying person for over half the year. For detailed
information, refer to Tax Topic 353, What is Your Filing Status,
or Publication 501, Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing
Information.
Although we supported our unmarried, 19-year-old daughter, she
spent most of last year away from home at school. Can we claim her as a dependent?
Yes. The time your child spends at school or on vacation counts as time lived with you.
For additional information, refer to Tax Topic 354, Dependents
or Publication 501, Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing
Information, and Publication 929, Tax Rules for Children and
Dependents.
What criteria must be met to claim an individual as a
dependent?
If you want to claim someone as your dependent, there are five tests which must be met:
- Member of Household or Relationship Test
- Citizenship Test
- Joint Return Test
- Gross Income Test
- Support Test
Member of Household or Relationship Test: A person must live with you for the
entire tax year as a member of your household or be related to you. A person is not
considered a member of your household if, at any time during the tax year, your
relationship with that person violates local law. The Form 1040 and 1040A instruction
booklets contain a listing of all relatives who may qualify under the relationship test.
Your spouse is never considered your dependent.
Citizenship Test: Your dependent must be a U.S. citizen or resident, or a
resident of Canada or Mexico for some part of the tax year.
Joint Return Test: Generally, you are not allowed to claim a person as a
dependent if he or she files a joint return.
However, you may claim a married dependent who is filing a joint return solely to claim
a refund of tax withheld. This exception applies if neither the dependent nor the
dependent's spouse is required to file a return and no tax liability exists for either
spouse on separate returns.
Gross Income Test: Generally, you may not claim as a dependent, a person who had
gross income of $2,650 or more for 1997. There are two exceptions to the gross income
test. If your child is under age 19 at the end of the tax year or a full-time student
under the age of 24, the gross income test does not apply.
Support Test: To claim someone as your dependent, you must provide more than
half of that person's total support during the year. A special rule applies to children of
divorced or separated parents.
You must include a valid Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification
Number (ITIN) for each dependent claimed on your tax return or the exemption will be
disallowed. For more information on dependents, refer to Publication
501, Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information, and Publication 929, Tax Rules for Children and Dependents.
What can I do to make sure I will not owe the IRS on my 1998
income tax return?
You can either increase the amount of income tax withheld from your pay or make
estimated tax payments for 1998. You may change the amount of income tax withheld from
your pay by filing a new Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate. Form
1040-ES, Estimated Tax for Individuals, has a worksheet to see if you need to make
estimated tax payments. For more details, refer to Tax Topic 355, Estimated
Tax, or Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax.
My husband passed away last year, and I will be filing a joint
return. Are any special return notations required to indicate my husband is deceased?
If you are a surviving spouse filing a joint return and no personal representative has
been appointed, you should sign the return and write in the signature area, "filing
as surviving spouse." The final return should have the word "Deceased," the
decedent's name, and the date of death written across the top of the return. For
additional information, refer to Tax Topic 356, Decedents.
I am adopting a child and do not yet have a social security
number for the child. How can I claim the exemption for the child?
Parents in the process of a domestic U.S. adoption who do not have and/or are unable to
obtain the child's Social Security Number (SSN) should request an Adoption Taxpayer
Identification Number (ATIN) in order to claim the child as a dependent and (if eligible)
to claim the child care credit. Form W-7A, Application for
Taxpayer Identification Number for Pending Adoptions, is used by qualifying taxpayers
to obtain an ATIN. To get Form W-7A, you may go to any IRS walk-in site or call
1-800-829-3676. You may also download the form here in Adobe PDF format. For more
information about the ATIN, see the ATIN program.
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