If your question is whether you can claim yourself rather than your parent's claiming you: There
is a rule that says IF somebody else CAN claim YOU as a dependent, You are not
allowed to claim your own exemption. If you have sufficient income, you can & should still file taxes, you
just don’t get your own $3800 exemption (deduction). In TurboTax, you indicate
that somebody else can claim you as a dependent.
Somebody else can claim you under the following two sets of rules:
A child of a
taxpayer can still be a “Qualifying Child (QC)” dependent, regardless of
his/her income, if:
1. He is under
age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year,
or is totally & permanently disabled
2. He did not
provide more than 1/2 his own support
3. He lived
with the parent (or was away at school) for more than half the year
A person can still be an
other dependent (Qualifying relative in IRS parlance, even though they do not
have to be actually related), if not a Qualifying Child (QC), if he meets the 6
tests for claiming a dependent:
1. Closely Related OR live
with you ALL year
2. His/her gross taxable income for the year must be less than $3,800 (2012)
3. You must have provided
more than 1/2 his support
In either case:
4. He must be a US citizen or resident of the US, Canada
or Mexico
5. He must not file a joint
return with his spouse or file a tax return
claiming someone else as a dependent
6. He must not be the
qualifying child of another taxpayer
