My older daughter is claiming herself on her taxes even though she qualified as my dependent

[sdkemme]

Where do I tell TurboTax that I do not want to claim her?

[mesquitebean]

@bwa
I see you started to answer this, so I'll turn it over to you.  I was going to ask some preliminary questions, and then ask someone familiar with the topic to continue anyway.

[mesquitebean]

sdkemme:
In the interest of time, I'll ask some preliminary questions.  Hopefully by then bwa will return.

It depends who is entitled to claim the dependent exemption.  If you are entitled to claim the daughter and choose not to, the daughter still cannot claim herself.   

TurboTax will ask the daughter if someone else CAN claim her as a dependent, and then will followup by asking if someone WILL claim her as a dependent.   So if you are entitled to claim her, she'll need to answer that someone else CAN claim her, and then you'll need to decide if you will or won't claim her.  But if you are entitled to claim her, she won't be able to in either case.

What is the story on the daughter?   Age? Income?  Full-time/part-time student?  Live with you or on her own?  Who provides the bulk of her support?   If you are entitled to claim her, why do you not wish to do so?

[bwa · Accepted solution]

The short answer is if your daughter qualifies as your dependent she cannot claim herself on her own tax return.  The question she will need to answer is can someone claim her, not will someone claim her.  You can't move dependents between tax returns because it's beneficial to do so.

On the other hand, as epo points out, there may be a substantial question as to whether she really is your dependent or not.  The questions epo asked need to be answered before any advice can be given on that point.