topic Dependent status for a full-time student with an income in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Dependent status for a full-time student with an income

SergeiS — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 00:42:53 GMT

Hello,

My daughter (20 years old) is a full-time student who earned more than $5050 in 2024. TurboTax disqualifies her from being claimed as a dependent based on her income although her full-time student status should qualify her regardless of her income (it is much smaller than a half of her living expenses). There is no question about her student status in the software that results in this incorrect determination. Could you please fix this bug?

Regards,

Sergei

Re: Dependent status for a full-time student with an income

Bsch4477 — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 01:01:20 GMT

You answered the dependent information questions wrong. Be sure you checked that she doesn’t provide more than half of her support and that she lived with you all year if that’s the case. Absence at school counts as living at home.

Re: Dependent status for a full-time student with an income

LeticiaF1 — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 01:07:06 GMT

As Bsch4477 mentioned, you probably answered a question incorrectly when you entered your daughter's information. Go back to the return and review your answers:

Open your return
Go to the Personal profile screen
Select Edit by her name
Review all of her information
When you get to the Less common situations for your daughter, make sure to only select that she was a full-time student

@SergeiS

Re: Dependent status for a full-time student with an income

SergeiS — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 01:49:20 GMT

Thank you Bsch4477 and LeticiaF1 for your quick responses. I did not answer any questions incorrectly. My daughter info was uploaded by Turbotax from my last year return and there was no question about her full-time student status in this year interview (I went through it 3 times!). I ended up following chatGPT advice (haha) deleting her and re-entering her as a dependent. That brought up the question about full-time student status and solved the problem. The bottom line is that it is a bug in the software that does not ask all needed questions after profile upload from the last year return. Please fix it so other users do not need to jump through these hoops.

Best regards,

Sergei