@AdamAsks
if a person, such as your son, qualifies to be claimed as a dependent by someone else, they must answer the question “yes, I can be claimed as a dependent“ even if they don’t want to be claimed and even if the person who could claim them agrees not to claim them. Answering yes will disqualify them from recovery rebate in their own name.
if the person answers “no, I can’t be claimed as a dependent“ in order to claim the rebate, when this is untrue and they could have been claimed as a dependent, this may constitute tax fraud. We don’t know how aggressive the IRS will be in pursuing this, but they have three years to audit normal tax returns and six years in the case of fraud.
there is a second question, “will the person who could claim you actually claim you this year?“ This question only affects eligibility for the American opportunity credit. Sometimes, a child will qualify for a larger American opportunity credit in their own name if their parents don’t claim them, this usually occurs when the parents are high income, but the child must also have their own substantial income earned from working.
Regardless of the odds of getting caught, I’m not sure that your son should be starting their young life filing a fraudulent tax return. It seems like that would send the wrong message to the child.
