Does an 18 years not living at home, working 16 hour per week and going to college, has to file their own taxes?

[xmasbaby0 · Accepted solution]

If your dependent has a W-2 for his after-school job, summer job, etc. you do not include the information on your own return. You can still claim your child as a dependent on your own return.  He/she can file his own return for a refund of some of his withheld wages (he won’t get back anything for Social Security or Medicare), but MUST indicate on it that he can be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s return.  (Supervise this closely or prepare it for him!)

If your dependent’s earnings were over $400 and were reported on a 1099Misc then he must file a return and pay self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare.  You may want to use this version of TT for that:

https://turbotax.intuit.com/taxfreedom/

[aracelly77]

Thank you

[TomD8]

If you claim him as a dependent, he must file his own return if he has W-2 wages over $6300 (2016).  If his W-2 wages are below that number, although not required he would have file a return in order to receive a refund of excess withheld taxes.

As xmasbaby0 said, the filing threshold if his earnings are reported on a 1099-MISC (instead of a W-2) is $400.