My 17 year old works, files taxes and claims herself. Can I claim her as a dependent and does she count for a credit toward my tax refund?

[xmasbaby0]

No!  Your 17 year old should not "claim herself"!  She should be saying on her own return that she can be claimed as a dependent on someone else's return.  If she claims her own exemption your own e-file is going to be rejected when you try to file.  Then she will have to amend her return--a process that will take months and possibly require her to re-pay some of her refund.

MY DEPENDENT HAD A JOB

If your dependent has a W-2 for his after-school job, summer job, etc. you do not include the information on your own return. You can still claim your child as a dependent on your own return.  He/she can file his own return for a refund of some of his withheld wages (he won’t get back anything for Social Security or Medicare), but MUST indicate on it that he can be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s return.  (Supervise this closely or prepare it for him!)

If your dependent’s earnings were over $400 and were reported on a 1099Misc then he must file a return and pay self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare.  You may want to use this version of TT for that:

https://turbotax.intuit.com/taxfreedom/

[Carl]

Besides, I seriously doubt your 17 year old can even come close to having provided more than 50% of their own support. So your 17 year old has to select the option for "I can be claimed on someone else's return" unless they can prove to the IRS they provided more than 50% of their own support. If the 17 year old lived under your roof for the tax year, then there's no way they provided more than 50% of their own support.

[VolvoGirl]

If she made less than $6,350 W2 income she will get back all the federal withholding (W2 box 2) taken out.  If she made over 6,350 she will owe some tax on it and won't get it all back or she may even have a tax due.