Hi,
My five-year-old son received a $38,000 lump-sum child SSDI payment, mostly attributable to three prior years because of a long appeal process. He is my dependent but I understand that income is his and gets reported on his taxes, not mine. He has never filed taxes before because has never had any money paid to him before (neither earned or unearned). He has no other income except the $33,000. Going forward, he should receive about $1,300 monthly in SSDI ($15,600 annually).
In future years, I know he won't need to file any tax return with income of only $15,600 (let's assume he won't have income from another source at this age). But what about this year?
I know not all of this $33,000 is taxable, maybe none of it is because, I can allocate to prior years, right? Even if he filed no tax return for those years? But does he need to file *any* return at all, for the year in which the $33,000 lump sum was paid? It is over the limit for needing to file, right?
Thanks for any advice you have.
