You may have unearned income that you're not aware of, requiring you to file Form 8615, Tax for Certain Children Who Have Unearned Income.
If you have a Form 1098-T with an amount in Box 5, Scholarships or grants, for example, and the Box 5 amount is greater than the amount in Box 1, Payments received for qualified tuition and related expenses, that difference would be considered unearned income.
According to Who Must File in the Instructions for Form 8615:
Form 8615 must be filed for any child who meets all of the following conditions.
- The child had more than $2,300 of unearned income.
- The child is required to file a tax return.
- The child either:
- Was under age 18 at the end of 2022,
- Was age 18 at the end of 2022 and didn’t have earned income that was more than half of the child's support, or
- Was a full-time student at least age 19 and under age 24 at the end of 2022 and didn’t have earned income that was more than half of the child's support.
(Earned income is defined later. Support is defined below.)
- At least one of the child's parents was alive at the end of 2022.
- The child doesn’t file a joint return for 2022.
You've most likely entered something in the TurboTax program that's triggering this requirement. If this situation doesn't describe your scenario, please post back.
@donkey16
