Dependent gambling winnings $3000

[miyapaige]

My 22 year old son is a full time student and received a WG2 for gambling winnings of $2900. It says he has to file a return. The return asks if he can be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s taxes, which is yes. He enters are income information and now it says he owes $6000 on a $3000 gambling winnings. This does not make sense. When I remove him as a dependent on our tax, we owe $800 more. Please help! Can we still claim him as a dependent and can he check off no, if asked if anyone can claim him on their tax returns 

[SusanY1]

Since your son is under 23 and a full-time student, he has to indicate that he can be claimed as a dependent even if he isn't.  

Gambling winnings are considered unearned and subject to "kiddie tax", which means the tax rate is determined by the tax rate of the parents.  However, this shouldn't cause the federal tax due to be more than double the winnings if the W-2G is the only income that your son received. 

If there are other items of income combined with this, you could see a pretty big jump in tax when this item is entered. 

If it's the only item of income I would clear the return and start over, after taking a moment to file an extension to get a little extra time to avoid "failure-to-file" penalties.