Dependent taxes

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
January 21, 2026
2 replies
78 views

My wife and I have an 18 year old son in college. We provide 100% of his support. In 2025 he earned $300 from one summer job and an additional $375 from a second job. No taxes were withheld. That was his total earned income. Both were reported on 1099s. 1. Can we still claim him as a dependent? does he have to file a tax return? 3. Can he use the earned income to fund his ROTH IRA?

Best answer by MinhT1

Expert Reviewed

If your son has income in 2025, you don't report your son's income on your tax return.

1, You can claim him as a dependent as he didn't provide more than half of his own support for the year and he was under 19 at the end of 2025 (or under 24 and a full-time student).

2. He has to file his own return as his self-employment income (reported on forms 1099-NEC) was over $400 in 2025. He will have to pay self-employment tax.

On his own tax return, he has to indicate in the My Info section of TurboTax that he can be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer.

3. Yes, he can use all or part of his earned income ($675) to contribute to a Roth IRA.

xmasbaby0

Level 15

Yes, your 18 year old can be claimed as a qualifying child dependent. Since he has over $400 of self-employment income, he is required to file a return himself and pay self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare. He must say on his own return that he can be claimed as someone else's dependent.

The Premium TurboTax online software is expensive----you might want to use some other free tax software for him

Use this IRS site for other ways to file for free. There are 8 free software versions available from the IRS Free File site

https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/self-employed/help/what-is-the-self-employment-tax/00/25922

Only income earned from working can be put into his Roth.

**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**

MinhT1Answer