You can file, and you will need to file if your income was more than 6,300 dollars for the year.
You mother can only claim you as a dependent if you were a full-time student that provided less than half of your support for 2016, or you earned less than 4,050 dollars for the year and your mother provided more than half of your support.
See the following:
Qualifying Child Dependent:
- You are under the age
of 19, or you are between the ages of 19 and 24, and;
- You were a full time
student for 2016
- To be a student,
they must be, during some part of each of any 5 calendar months
of the year:
- A full-time
student at a school that has a regular teaching staff, course of study,
and a regularly enrolled student body at the school, or
- A student taking a
full-time, on-farm training course given by a school described in (1),
or by a state, county, or local government agency.
- The 5 calendar
months don't have to be consecutive.
- You did not provide
more than half of your own support.
- This
test is different from the support test to be a qualifying relative,
which is described later. However, to see what is or isn't support,
see Support Test (To Be
a Qualifying Relative) , later. If you aren't sure whether a
child provided more than half of his or her own support, you may
find Worksheet 2 helpful.
- You did not file a
joint tax return.
- An exception to the
joint return test applies if your child and his or her spouse file a
joint return only to claim a refund of income tax withheld or estimated
tax paid.
Qualifying Relative
Dependent
- You earned less than 4,050 dollars.
- Your mother provided more than half of your support
