Deductions & credits

>>  "Decide that a $500 deduction will not help me that much, and for student grant considerations perhaps it is best to let him file and state that no one can claim him as a dependent."

> @Hal_Al   - You're not allowed to do that.

Good to know. But 'allowed' is not really a word for me here as I'm allowed to not claim him. He is the one that is not permitted to take the personal exemption. My son is doing his own taxes (whatever the EZ form is now). So might be better to word that as he is not allowed to do that. If he does and I try to claim him as well, then the IRS will reject my return that contains his SS#. I would need to get him to file a 1040X and amend his return and then one or both of us resubmit a paper return.  Also if he takes the personal exemption and I DON'T claim him, if the IRS catches this it could cause an issue for both him and whomever can claim him (me  - presumably).  Seems they are OK if he doesn't claim himself and I don't claim him either. 🙂

The point of this thread was that there were bugs and contradictions in terms of what was deemed a "Qualifying Child" on the online version of TurboTax. I worked with TurboTax to confirm this. They committed to correcting the issues, and when I first checked I thought that they had "for the most part" gotten me to where I originally thought I should be (turned out not really as getting the "Dependent" status changes with the flip of a coin practically). Look back at my initial posts where I wrote about the status last year and about the IRS ITA outcome I got *at that time* of my son being a Qualifying Child that could be claimed for the $500 ODC credit. 

But in reality, all is still not well.

I went back and created two new dependents. I said "Yes" to the question about whether my dependent "made $5050 or more in 2024",  the first one came out the other end with Status: Dependent

Still though if I go back and edit this dependent after getting the "Dependent" status, I can't get back to the income question. I only see it if I create a new dependent and only that one time if they get deemed "Dependent". I will not see it again. But then using the same info with different name and SS#, I get different screens of questions for the "Less common situations for xxxx". First time there were 10 questions, but now there are only 8 for this new entry. What is missing is the questions about whether "xxxx was a full time student in 2024" and the question about "Was financially supported by a relative who lived in your home for more than half of 2024".

So they haven't fixed anything really yet.

In an interesting twist, when I go to the IRS  Interactive Tax Assistant (ITA) *now*, it DOES ASK an income question as the very last question. It asks you to enter an amount in dollars. It does not ask you "Was xxxx's gross income $5050 or more in 2024?" No question about amount of income was there before. But now when I put in the income it switches from Qualifying Child to Qualifying Relative and says does not qualify. Can't make this stuff up!

So NOW the IRS ITA I linked previously is saying he does NOT qualify! Even better the last modified for the page still reads as Nov 2024. 

And one more, one more thing: The IRS ITA switches from saying " xxxx qualifies for the Credit for Other Dependents" to "xxxx does not qualify for the Credit for Other Dependents" when you put in a value of $5,200 or more... not $5050.

So this is a mess that frankly is not worth a $500 ODC credit to me. I plan to call TurboTax back and update them, but to be safe at this point:

It would seem best if neither I nor my son claimed him.