If Im Under 18 and My Parent Claims Me As a Dependent In Her Tax Return, Will I Get Any Return?

[jregan26]

I am a High School student and I have made ~$4500 at my current job with taxes being deducted from every paycheck. My Mom always have claimed me as a dependent because I live with her, but she is very vague about me filing my own tax return. So I have a few questions?

A. Do I need to file?

B. If I file, how much would I be looking to get back (roughly speaking)?

C. How would me filing impact her tax return? 

[xmasbaby0]

If you can be claimed as a dependent on your parents’ return, you can still file your own return so that you can receive a refund of taxes withheld.  (You will not get back anything for Social Security or Medicare withheld.) You will not get the $4050 personal exemption.  Be sure that on your own return you say that you can be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s return.

[Hal_Al]

Q. Do I need to file?

A. No. You are below the filing threshold of $6300. You are allowed to file if you want to get back the withholding shown in box 2 and/or box 17 of your W-2.

Q. If I file, how much would I be looking to get back (roughly speaking)?

A. No rough about it. You will get everything shown in box 2 of your W-2. Since we don't know which state you live in , we can't tell you for sure you will get everything in box 17, but probably yes. There are lots of myths  out there about people getting hand outs from the government just for filing a tax return. Some of them are true. But, none of them apply to high school students living a home.

Q. How would me filing impact her tax return? 

A. Not at all as long as you don't try to claim your own exemption ("claim yourself"). Claiming yourself will NOT get you any additional refund.

You can do your return for free at TurboTax. https://turbotax.intuit.com/taxfreedom