High school student owes taxes

[jkbeaumont1]

Our 16 year old made almost $12K last year and we thought that since he is a full time high school student he was exempt from federal taxes. I completed his return and it reported that he owes $563 as he claimed EXEMPT and did not have any federal taxes withheld throughout the year.

[Coleen3 · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, age has nothing to do with owing taxes. There are child actors and models that make a tremendous amount of money. He is not losing any money for the fact that the $563 would not have been his money anyway if it had been withheld. If you are claiming him as a dependent, which you should be, that would mean that he would owe even more than if he were independent.

It is better to pay it before the 18, since any payments after that time will be subject to penalties and interest. In the future, he should always put zero exemptions on his W-4, especially while he is a dependent.

[jkbeaumont1]

Completely understand. Not a lot of kids his age make this amount of money in a given year here in NH. He works for our business as a part-time employee so this is a good learning experience for him. As I explained to him, better he pay now and had use of that money over the year versus a refund where he is loaning the gov't his money interest free. 🙂

[Coleen3]

Great. Also, he learned, relatively painlessly, a lesson he will not forget and a mistake he'll never make again.