My 18 year old son lives with me and was working in 2024, am I able to claim him as a dependent? I still support him.

[DoninGA]

You should be able to claim him as your dependent under the Qualifying Child rules as long as he meets all the requirements.

To be a Qualifying Child -

1. The child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant of any of them.
2. The child must be (a) under age 19 at the end of the year, (b) under age 24 at the end of the year and a full-time student or (c) any age and permanently and totally disabled.
3. The child must have lived with you for more than half of the year. Temporary absences while away at college are considered living with you.
4. The child must not have provided more than half of his or her own support for the year.
5. If the child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person, you must be the person entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child.
6. The child must be a U.S. citizen or U.S., Canada or Mexico resident for some portion of the year.
7. The child must be younger than you unless disabled.

[xmasbaby0]

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 or 1099NEC then he must file a return and pay self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare.

You might also want to use free software from the IRS Free File versions:

https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/

AT age 18, your child can still be a "qualifying child" dependent.   If he attends college as a full-time student, he may be a qualifying child until the year he turns 24.

WHO CAN I CLAIM AS A DEPENDENT?

You can claim a child, relative, friend, or fiancé (etc.) as a dependent on your 2024 taxes as long as they meet the following requirements:

Qualifying child

• They're related to you.
• They aren't claimed as a dependent by someone else.
• They're a U.S. citizen, resident alien, national, or a Canadian or Mexican resident.
• They aren’t filing a joint return with their spouse.
• They're under the age of 19 (or 24 for full-time students).
• No age limit for permanently and totally disabled children.
• They lived with you for more than half the year (exceptions apply).
• They didn't provide more than half of their own support for the year.

[Vanessa A]

It depends.  If he was a full-time student for 5 months out of the year, then yes, you would be able to still claim him as a dependent regardless of how much he earned as long as he did not provide over half of his own support. 

If he was NOT a full-time student for 5 months out of the year, then you could possibly claim him as a Qualifying Relative if he earned less than $5,050.  

If he was NOT a full -time student and he earned MORE than $5,050, then you would NOT be able to claim him at all as a dependent on your return. 

The following criteria must be met to claim someone as a qualifying child:

• Your child (including adopted and foster children), your sibling, or a descendent of any of them.
• Age 18 or younger at the end of the tax year OR under 24 (and younger than you and your spouse) if they are a full-time student
• Lived with you for more than 6 months during the tax year
• They did not provide more than half of their own support (social security does not count)
• They did not file a joint return, unless it was to claim a refund
  
   

To claim someone as a Qualifying Relative, they must be:

• Your child ( including step children, adoptive children and foster children) or a descendent of them
• Your sibling (including half siblings) or a child of your sibling or a sibling-in-law
• Your parent or grandparents, including step parents and in laws
• Any other person that lived with you for the entire tax year
• Not a qualifying child of another taxpayer
• Someone that you provided over half of their support for during the tax year
• Has less than $5,050 in income (not counting social security)
  
  
   

[Candyandbrayden]

Yes he was in high school and graduated in June of 2024. So I’m able to claim him as a dependent? I supported him all year and still do.

[DoninGA]

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@Candyandbrayden wrote:

Yes he was in high school and graduated in June of 2024. So I’m able to claim him as a dependent? I supported him all year and still do.

---

Yes, you can claim him as your dependent.

[jburatti]

I have the same question and situation which was 90% answered by reading the above.  There is one caveat I have though.  Just like the original poster, my son was 18 on January 1st 2024 and graduated High School in June 24, while working after school and summer.  He has already filed his own returns without help from me back in January.  The only thing I do not know is if he checked that box stating "Someone else can claim me as a dependent".  

To my understanding, as long as he did check that box I can still claim him.  The unfortunate part is that he has since left for the Navy and I cannot contact him to ask if that box was checked or not (likely he would not remember either).

What would happen to my return if I still claimed him as a dependent but he did NOT check that box?

[xmasbaby0]

@jburatti If your son did not say on his own return that he could be claimed as someone else's dependent, when you try to e-file a return that does claim him, your e-file will be rejected for duplicate use of his SSN.   Then the only way you will be able to file and claim him as a dependent will be to file by mail.  You will have to print, sign and date your return in ink, and mail it in.   Your son will need to amend his return to change the way he answered the question in MY INFO regarding whether he could be claimed.

[jburatti]

Thanks for the quick reply.  Quick follow up question now...

Lets say I claim him as a dependent, attempt the e-File and it gets rejected as you stated because it turns out he did not check that box.  If that's the case then its no big deal and I will give up claiming him as a dependent, just to make things easier.  If I were to then just modify my forms, removing him as a dependent, would I still be able to e-File, the modified returns?

Basically in other words, if it gets rejected once, does TT/the IRS allow a second attempt of e-File after the corrections/modifications are made or am I forced to still paper file after removing him as a dependent?

[xmasbaby0]

If you decide to remove your son as a dependent then you will not have the issue of duplicate use of his SSN, so you can e-file --- if that is what you want to do.  If you do not claim him, you lose the $500 credit for other dependents, and possibly Head of Household filing status if you are a single parent, and earned income credit.

[jburatti]

Thanks.

Yes I understand that removing him would make me lose out on that $500 credit however I am also claiming my other 2 younger children, so that shouldn't affect any filing status or other qualifications.  Losing out on the $500 for the older one is easier (IMO) than the other option of paper filing and amending his.

Thanks for the support!!

[AnnetteB6]

Keep in mind that you can always amend his return and yours at a later time (for up to three years from the due date) to be able to claim the $500 other dependent credit.  If you did want to do that, creating both amended returns and mailing them together to the IRS would give them a good chance at being processed at the same time.  

@jburatti