E-File Rejected because Son filed as a Non-Dependent

[Bogeyfire]

My son is 24.  He has a learning disability and is enrolled in a school for people with disabilities.  I pay his rent.  The state pays for the school.  I pay his gas and $100/week for expenses.  He does earn some money by delivering for DoorDash.

He filed his taxes, and he did not file as a Dependent.  When I filed, it was declined because I had listed him Dependent.  I took him off my taxes.  That cost us over $2000.  I submitted my taxes and it was accepted.

Now, my wife and I want to know what we can do to fix this and get his Dependent status back.

Thank you!

[Bsch4477]

If you provided more than half of his support and he earned less than $4300 you can claim him. Since he filed a tax return, does that mean he made more than that?

[DMarkM1 · Accepted solution]

As noted by @Bsch4477 the key is did he earn more than $4300 in 2021?  If not you can claim him and both you and him will need to file amendments.   You should wait for both of your original returns to be processed by the IRS (refunds deposited).

He will adjust his return to show that he can be claimed by someone else (checking the box in the "My Info" section).  You will then amend to show him as a dependent on your returns. He will probably not owe any taxes but you will be due a refund.

In TurboTax just sign in and select the "Amend" option and follow the prompts.

Here is Publication 501 for reference.  See table 5 for the dependent qualifications.  

[Bogeyfire]

No, he makes $30-50 per week.  The problem is that since he didn't file as a dependent, but I listed him as a dependent with the same SSN, the system won't allow that.  It was rejected by the IRS as well as CA.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask him to amend his return.  Then, I can add him back on to my return and refile. Does that sound right?

The difficulty is, he lives 300mi away, so I'm not sure I can walk him through it, especially since we are using different versions of TurboTax.

[Bogeyfire]

Thank you DMarkM1!

[Bsch4477]

Yes, he amends his return and you mail your return with him as a dependent. You don’t amend your return since it was rejected and never filed. Unfortunately amended returns can take more than 6 months to process.