Claim as a dependent a full time student with unearned income who files his own return

[peixes]

Greetings! My son has net capital gains of under $1,150 for year 2022. I want to claim his as a dependent but want him to file his own taxes so that he may carry over his capital losses into 2023.

Question: If he "does' file own his separate tax return (even if he is not required to, according to the rules),

will I still be able to declare him as a dependent? Any downside of going this route versus him not filing at all?

Thanks for your feedback!

My wife and I - Married filling jointly

My SON:

Single
Age in 2022: 22 and full-time student
Support: I provide more than half of his support.
Income: Net capital gains $800

(no other income)
Forms received: he received 1099-B from three brokerages

[DoninGA]

Yes, you can claim him as your dependent under the Qualifying Child rules since he is a full time student, under the age of 24 and does not provide over one-half of his own support.

To be a Qualifying Child -

1. The child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant of any of them.
2. The child must be (a) under age 19 at the end of the year, (b) under age 24 at the end of the year and a full-time student or (c) any age and permanently and totally disabled.
3. The child must have lived with you for more than half of the year. Temporary absences while away at college are considered living with you.
4. The child must not have provided more than half of his or her own support for the year.
5. If the child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person, you must be the person entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child.
6. The child must be a U.S. citizen or U.S., Canada or Mexico resident for some portion of the year.
7. The child must be younger than you unless disabled.

[DoninGA]

He can still file his own tax return but he Must indicate on his tax return that he can be claimed as a depednent.

[TomD8]

"he Must indicate on his tax return that he can be claimed as a depednent."

In TurboTax, this is done in the Personal Info section, on the page titled "Do any of these apply to ___?"

[Hal_Al]

If  he has NET capital gains of $800, then he usually has no  capital losses to carry over to 2023. His 2022 capital losses were all "used up" in arriving at the net $800 capital gain .

Furthermore, it is not necessary to file a tax return to preserve a capital loss carry forward, if a tax return is not otherwise required. 

Sometimes the calculations are complicated and it may be worthwhile to prepare a tax return (even if you don't file it) to be sure the carry forward is accurately calculated. TurboTax can handle it and will prepare a "Capital loss carry forward worksheet" to show the how much of your capital loss that will be carried forward to the next year.  But, in the case of a net capital gain, that is not usually needed.