Went for a walk, and light bulb went off about that one file with the Std Ded limited to $12,250.
Even though ~100k of income, most of it was SS and pension....hitting the "dependent" yes key limited the Std ded to W-2 wages (10k) plus some other unearned income (interest & dividends)...wahich happend to be 12,250. Then increasing the W-2 wages to 20k, bumped up the std ded to the full 15,700 for a 78 year old.
Still, the individual is not a dependent with that amount of income in either case.
____________*Answers are correct to the best of my knowledge when posted, but should not be considered to be legal or official tax advice.*
