Thank you, JulieS.
I'll keep searching for the guiding law. I'm definitely missing something and relying on "everyone else is doing it" just isn't satisfying my curiosity. To your point about the change with the TCJA, I think the Virginia law as written is completely accurate and still works. As I'm sure you know, the TCJA did not eliminate the personal exemption, it merely set the exemption to $0 (and thus no one "claims" it). So as long as you are eligible for the $0 exemption on the Federal return, you are eligible for the personal exemption on the Virginia return. Therein lies my confusion. Dependents are not eligible for the Federal personal exemption. Additionally, allowing it for state purposes means that dependent has TWO personal exemptions being taken for them, assuming the dependent also files their own state return. Seems a bit odd a state would allow that.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply.
