My husband and I file jointly, and have one child still living at home. He just turned 21, is a full time student at a local community college, but also worked last year for six month full time earning over $17k.
He has to file his own return, and I have started both returns on TurboTax using the desktop version. We have always claimed him as a dependent, but this year there seems to be a big benefit to not claiming him. My husband's and my combined salary is too high to get any benefit from his tuition, and as I understand it he made too much for us to qualify for even the $500 Other Dependent Credit. However if we don't claim him, he gets a tax credit for tuition as well as a stimulus check.
So my question is do I have to claim him as a dependent? I know I CAN claim him as a dependent, but am I am REQUIRED to do so?
I have searched all sorts of help sites and even the IRS website and all I can find is rules on when and who can claim dependents. Not what happens if someone is technically a dependent but you do not claim them.
thanks for any help I can get on this matter.
