Is my daughter a dependent

[sewell_kristy]

she turned 18 in 2016 and has already filed her own tax returns.  She claimed herself on her return.  So do I completely remove her as a dependent on my return?  Even though she has lived with me the entire year.

[GeoffreyG · Accepted solution]

The answer to your question is that you basically have (2) different ways that you can handle this situation.  Either option will be acceptable to the IRS.

First, you can "remove" your daughter as a dependent on your own tax return, as you indicate that she has already filed a tax return for herself, and declared herself not to be the dependent of any other taxpayer.  Of course, that will mean that you cannot then claim her dependency exemption, or any of the other tax credits and benefits that may also go with doing so, but at least there would be no conflict between your two tax returns (you and your daughter) in the eyes of the IRS.

Second, you can ask your daughter to "amend" her original tax return, and answer the dependency question differently than she did on her original tax return.  An amended tax return of this nature will probably take the IRS at least 8 to 16 weeks to process; and even then cannot be submitted to the IRS until the original tax return is fully processed and a tax refund (if any) issued.  Only after an original tax return has been completely run through the system can or should an amended tax return be filed.  After both your daughter's original tax return and amended tax return are eventually processed, at that point her dependency exemption will be "free" and you can claim it.

Because of the time required to do all of this, if you choose the second option, you may want to request an extension of time to file a tax return for yourself (which will give you until mid-October, to get everything done).

For a link containing instructions on how to amend a 2016 tax return in TurboTax, please see the following:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3061514-how-do-i-amend-a-2016-return-in-turbotax


For information on amending in general, please refer to this page (and a short IRS video found there):

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1908543-do-i-need-to-amend-my-tax-return


Finally, for information on requesting an extension of time to file an income tax return, you can refer to this resource:

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Efile/Filing-an-Income-Tax-Extension/INF12040.html


Thank you for asking this important question.