Even if you are a dependent, you file your own return for wages and other income that you earn. This is normal and working does not automatically affect your ability to be a dependent.
You must check the box that says "I can be claimed as a dependent" if you can be claimed, even if you don't want to.
For tax year 2025, you can be claimed as a dependent by your parents if all these statements are true:
1. you are under 24 and a full time student for at least 5 months (such as one semester)
2. you paid less than half your own support
- Add up your total financial needs, including room and board, tuition, medical, entertainment, clothing, travel, and so on. If you live at home part of the year, a percentage of your parent's housing costs for mortgage, utilities and so on counts as support they provide to you. Scholarships don't count on either side of the equation. Student loans that you take out in your own name for college expenses count as support you provide yourself, since you have promised to pay them back. Your parents don't have to pay more than half, they can still claim you if they pay less than half if other people help with expenses. What counts is if you paid more than half or not.
3. you lived with your parent(s) for more than half the year.
- A college student is assumed to "live at home" with their parents if they would have lived at home if not for college. Such as, you go home for vacation and summer break. College is considered being away for a temporary absence. Sometime, a college student may have permanently moved out of their parents home, with a permanent home at college, and no intention of moving back, but this is fairly uncommon.
If your parents can claim you as a dependent, then they should almost always claim your 1009-T for the college credits. The only time they would not is if their income is so high that they would be phased out of the American opportunity credit. In that case, you might get a few dollars more than they would.
