Q. Do I need to file?
A. No. You are below the filing threshold of $6300. You are allowed to file if you want to get back the withholding shown in box 2 and/or box 17 of your W-2.
Q. If I file, how much would I be looking to get back (roughly speaking)?
A. No rough about it. You will get everything shown in box 2 of your W-2. Since we don't know which state you live in , we can't tell you for sure you will get everything in box 17, but probably yes. There are lots of myths out there about people getting hand outs from the government just for filing a tax return. Some of them are true. But, none of them apply to high school students living a home.
Q. How would me filing impact her tax return?
A. Not at all as long as you don't try to claim your own exemption ("claim yourself"). Claiming yourself will NOT get you any additional refund.
You can do your return for free at TurboTax. https://turbotax.intuit.com/taxfreedom
