topic Form 8615 in Education

Form 8615

Dove5712 — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 08:07:46 GMT

I'm claiming my child as a dependent. He seems to meet all the required conditions to file a form 8615, but Turbo Tax is not creating one. He's a full time student, correct age, unearned income over $2200 and did not have earned income that was more than half his support. The only thing I can think that might of stopped a form 8615, is his earned income. Is there a max you can earn before it's considered half his support?

Re: Form 8615

ColeenD3 — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 12:06:20 GMT

Not really, because the program doesn't know what his support costs were. This is odd because we usually get questions the other way around, saying they shouldn't have to file the return.

How much was his earned income? If it was a fair amount, that could trigger the form not appearing. Try taking out his W-2 amount and see what happens if you incrementally add the income back in.

For tax year 2021, the Kiddie Tax applies if your child has unearned income (usually from investments) exceeding $2,200.

Form 8615 must be filed for any child who meets all of the following conditions.

The child had more than $2,200 of unearned income.
The child is required to file a tax return.
The child either:

17 or younger at the end of 2021
18 at the end of 2021, but only if their earned income (excluding scholarships in the case of a full-time student) didn’t exceed half of their support costs in 2021.
Was a full-time student at least age 19 and under age 24 at the end of 2021 and didn’t have earned income that was more than half of the child's support.
(Unearned income and support are defined below.

At least one of the child's parents was alive at the end of 2021.
The child doesn’t file a joint return for 2021.

For these rules, the term “child” includes a legally adopted child and a stepchild. These rules apply whether or not the child is a dependent. These rules don’t apply if neither of the child’s parents were living at the end of the year.

Re: Form 8615

Dove5712 — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 16:09:59 GMT

Thank you. I deleted the return and started over with no earned income and it did start a form 8615 that shows up as an error. The message show that the parents name must be blank. It wants me to take out all the parent's information. I noticed on the form that the question that asked was the student a fulltime student age 19-24 with unearned income more than $2200 and their earned income did not exceed on-half of their support is marked "No". I did not enter any earned income, so how could it produce the answer no. It will not let me change the answer either.

Re: Form 8615

KrisD15 — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 12:15:49 GMT

Is the student's taxable income on the 1040 line 15 zero?

Otherwise the questions concerning Form 8615 would be asked in the "personal Info" section. You might go back through that section and answer the interview questions concerning your son being a dependent and a full-time student.