Child married half of the year

[Rann1961]

I have a few questions that I am hoping someone might can help to answer. But first, I thought I read somewhere last year that TurboTax will no longer be doing Free E-File in 2023 for tax year 2022. Yet whe. I look at the TurboTax cd boxes it says Free E-File on the package. I’m confused, before I buy the cd do they still offer it or not?

Now for my main questions and I have been unable to find the answers. If a single dad who only has one child and that child is an adult and got married during the summer can he carry the adult child for half of the year? The single dad has always filed head of household through the years and would like to for the 6 months the child lived with him. The child graduated college in May and secured a job that begin the end of July. The dad would like to get the school credit for the child’s college. The child made around $20,000 at the new job and plans to file married filing separately. I am thinking the dad could claim child for 6 months and the child could claim their self for the other 6 months. Can it be filed like that? Or does the dad just lose the 6 months of having the child as a dependent and or the school credit? I have searched everywhere and cannot find this information. Thanks.

[VolvoGirl]

Yes efing is free and included in both the  Desktop program and Online versions.  And there istill is a Free Edition in Online.

But Turbo Tax is not participating in the IRS Free File program anymore.  That was separate from the regular Turbo Tax versions.

[Critter-3 · Accepted solution]

As for claiming the child ... if they are under the age of 24 and was a full time student for some part of 5 months of the year and they lived with you for more than 1/2 the year  AND  the file separately then you can claim them as a dependent one last time and get the HOH filing status & education credit.   HOWEVER the newly married couple have the right to file a joint return and you can ONLY claim the child if they file separately and only to get a refund of taxes being withheld ... no credits are allowed with MFS status.  Before any of you file a return you may want to complete all the return options available  to see what the best option is for all of you combined. 

[Rann1961]

The child is 22 years old. Will the child also be able to claim their self as a dependent on their taxes if the dad claims child as a dependent? I guess what I am asking can the dad claim the child as a dependent for 6 months of the year and the child claim them self for the other 6 months? I’m curious if a person (the child) can be claimed on 2 tax returns. They do plan to complete all options to see which is best.

[Hal_Al]

Q.  I am asking can the dad claim the child as a dependent for 6 months of the year and the child claim them self for the other 6 months? I’m curious if a person (the child) can be claimed on 2 tax returns. 

A. No. It's all year or nothing.

For a detailed explanation, for your situation, see this similar question. 

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2938663-can-i-claim-my-daughter-who-got-married-on-december-19th-2...

[Rann1961]

They just filed their taxes and the single parent could not claim the adult child because TurboTax said they could not claim child as a dependent because the child made over $4400 dollars. So the parent filed as single claiming only self and the child filed married filing separately claiming only their self.

[Hal_Al]

Why did the married child file separately, rather than filing jointly with their spouse?  Filing separately is very rarely the best method.  The most common reason is that they were able to get reduced student loan payments.

[Rann1961]

The spouse had already filed their taxes thinking the dad was going to claim the wife. They plan to file jointly next year since they will have been married for the whole year.

[Hal_Al]

They can amend their 2022 return to change it to Married Filing Jointly.  They should at least look at the numbers.  This tool might help 

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/?s=1