My son's income for 2019 was $4,573 & he has $1,000.00 housing scholarship....does he even need to file?

[mcbishop17]

A - When he entered the $1,000.00 in the Education Section asking about scholarship which went towards housing, it doesn't prompt any other information. 

B - He tried to enter it under miscellaneous income & received an error that TurboTax Free did not support what he was doing (or something to that effect).

Can he just enter the information as in the first example "A"?  

Is there another way to enter it as miscellaneous income or self-employment income (I've seen this mentioned but think he would get the same error as he did for "B").

Or does even need to bother with filing at all or would he get in trouble for not claiming the $1,000.00 since I listed it when filing my taxes with the 1098T information?

[NCperson]

if he is your dependent, his standard deduction is his earned income plus $350.  As long as he has no federal or state tax withholdings, why are you filing for him at all?  I see the only reason to file is to get back any withholdings. 

Earned income = 4573 + 1000

so he has no taxable income so therefore he owns nothing. 

[mcbishop17]

He wants to file (just as he has each year that he has since he began working and earning his own money) in order to get a refund of whatever he has paid in.  

There is no state tax in Tennessee, so that isn't a factor.

I'm just concerned that the $1,000.00 that I had to indicate as being taxable scholarship will pop up in the wrong place since it doesn't seem he can list where I've read about it needing to be listed.  (I've read that it is to be listed in his earned income section - which won't let him list it since he's using TT Free Edition & then I've read that it should be in self-employment section - but I'm not sure about that either.)

[NCperson]

that $1000 should be in the 'other income' section...... In fact, and while I don't normally do it this way', i wouldn't even list the $1,000 on the tax return - because whether you list it or not there is no tax due - the whole objective here is to get back the withholdings.  The IRS is not going to come after you for something that isn't listed that doesn't result in owing any money in any event (if you want to prove that there is nothing owed, just add $1,000 to the wages to watch what occurs - and then change it back). 

it is NOT self-employed money.  

[Hal_Al]

Actually the $1000 should not be listed as other income.  If it is, his income is $5573 and his standard deduction only $4923 resulting in $65 of income tax.  It needs to go on line 1, of form 1040, with the notation SCH. Although it is not technically earned income, it is treated as earned income for purposes of calculating a dependent's standard deduction.

I agree, you can just leave it off, as it doesn't affect anything.

But to enter it correctly, it must be entered at Deductions and Credits/Education/Education Expenses (Not at Wages & Income). The simple way is to enter a bogus 1098-T (lying to TT to get it to do what you want does not constitute lying to the IRS). Enter $1000 in box 5 and 0 in box 1.

[NCperson]

@mcbishop17 - is it worth your son changing his W-4 to indicate he does not anticipate paying taxes in 2020 (if that is true) so that nothing is withheld from his paycheck, avoiding this situation next year?