Vanessa A
Expert Alumni

Education

If she is 23 years old and you are married filing jointly, the primary credit you will get for her is the $500 Non-Refundable Other Dependent Credit. She does not qualify for the $2,000 Child Tax Credit.  

If you are married filing jointly (assuming based on the "our return" statement) then claiming her will not affect your filing status as Married Filing Jointly is higher than Head of household. 

You may also be losing an education credit which could be worth up to $2,500 and potentially (if you qualify) the Earned Income Credit.   Before you decide not to claim her, you may want to do your return with her on it and with her not on it. You may also want to check with the loan processor to determine IF you ACTUALLY claiming her will hurt her.  Again, it may be based off of whether you CAN not if you DO.  


(Edited 3/31/2025 @ 10:08AM PST) @ThomasDietz 

 

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