Dependent taxes

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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?

MinhT1Answer

Alumni - Intuit

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.

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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.**