Dependent taxes

[Vavnic52]

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?

[xmasbaby0]

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.

[MinhT1]

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.