I became unemployed in March 2016. I am supported by parents. How do I label myself, as student, traveler, or other? Do I file without my previous W2?

[SweetieJean]

How old are you?

[Texas Roger]

If you worked at a job that withheld social security and medicare taxes and perhaps federal income tax, you should get a W-2 and must enter the information from it on your tax return if you made enough to be required to file a return. Make sure your former employer has your current mailing address. It should come in the mail by Jan. 31.

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

It doesn't matter what you put in the occupation line on your tax form. The IRS only uses it for comparison purposes. Suit yourself.

The unasked question is: do you claim your own exemption or do your parents claim you. Support, alone, does not determine that. If they can claim you, the next question is what tax benefits can they claim you for.  How old you are is one of the parameters for answering that question, but is, along with support,  not the only determining factor.

It's quite complicated.

There is a rule that says IF somebody else CAN claim YOU as a dependent, You are not allowed to claim your own exemption. If you have  sufficient income (usually more than $6300),  you can & should still file taxes, you just don’t get your own $4050 exemption (deduction). In TurboTax, you indicate that somebody else can claim you as a dependent.

There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and standard ("Qualifying Relative" in IRS parlance even though they don't have to actually be related). There is no income limit for a QC but there is an age limit, a relationship test and a residence test. Only a QC qualifies the taxpayer for the Earned Income Credit, the Child Tax Credit. They are interrelated but the rules are different for each.

A child of a taxpayer can still be a “Qualifying Child” (QC) dependent, regardless of his/her income, if:

1. He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or is totally & permanently disabled

2. He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support. Scholarships are considered third party support and not as support provided by the student.

3. He lived with the parent (including temporary absences such as away at school) for more than half the year

A person can still be a Qualifying relative dependent, if not a Qualifying Child, if he meets the 6 tests for claiming a dependent:

1. Closely Related OR live with the taxpayer ALL year

2. His/her gross taxable income for the year must be less than $4,050 (2016)

3. The taxpayer must have provided more than 1/2 his support. Note how that is a different support test from  QC

In either case:

4. He must be a US citizen or resident of the US, Canada or Mexico

5. He must not file a joint return with his spouse or be claiming a dependent of his own

6. He must not be the qualifying child of another taxpayer