If I made no income and owe no taxes (federal or state), do I even need to file?

[emily-schmidtbeu]

I'm a full time student and would receive a whopping $13 refund from state if I filed but I'd have to pay $98 to say that I made no money and owe no money. Is this necessary?

[jamesreuter7722]

You didn't provide enough information.  Also, rules for who needs to file differ for each state and the feds, so which state matters.  When you say "no income", do you mean 0 or a small amount?  If zero, why would you get a state return?  And why would it cost $98 to say so?  (Paper filing costs a postage stamp or two.)  Are you a student?  Are you someone else's dependent?  All these things affect the answer.  What are your sources of whatever income you have?  (Investment income, interest income, and regular income have different thresholds for filing.)

[emily-schmidtbeu]

I have $0 of income because I am a full-time student which is why the $13 Colorado state tax return (calculated by Turbotax) was surprising/confusing. I also do not qualify for education credits because I already have a 4yr degree and am now working on my MD for which I did receive a 1098-T. I am not anyone's dependent. My living expenses are supplied by loans and scholarship and I have no other income including investments, interest, or regular. I own no property (houses, cars, etc). I basically have nothing and owe nothing but I want to make sure I am doing the right thing.  It is $98 to file a joint federal/state return on Turbotax if I were to file electronically but I do not know if I need to bother.

[jamesreuter7722]

Colorado's $13 is the standard sales tax refund for a filing as a single person.  Near as I can tell, you get that even if you paid $0 in state taxes.  (My daughter got the same thing.  She had CO income, not enough to pay taxes, but enough to get a W-2.  I still wonder if that is a TurboTax mistake or really the CO rules.)  

Colorado's filing rule is simple: if you have to file a federal return, you have to file a Colorado return.

For state taxes I just use TT to fill in the forms and then print it and mail it in, and skip the TT state filing fee.  If the version you bought doesn't include one state module, just download the form from the state.  For CO it's mostly a trivial exercise in copying fields from your Federal 1040 and saying no to a ton of optional stuff.

Given your situation, the real question is whether you have to file a Federal return.  If you have sizeable scholarships that cover more than just tuition, you might be required to file federal.  (Any portion of scholarships that pay for room & board, books, etc., is considered taxable income.  TT will ask specific questions about this when you put in your 1098-T.)