Where do I report my dependant child's income?

[beckyhornsby]

Where do I report my child's income? When I go into taxes and wages it only asks for W-2 for myself and my husband.

[PattiF]

It depends on what kind of income your child has to report. If they have a W-2 and need to file a return to get a refund of federal taxes that were withheld, they would need to file their own return.

If they had unearned income, like interest and dividends, that is greater than $1,100 they need to file a return. If it's less than $1,100, it doesn't need to be reported anywhere.

However you, as the parent, can elect to report your child's interest income on your return so that the child does not have to file their own return. This is done using Form 8814.

You can make this election if your child meets all of the following conditions.

1. Your child was under the age of 19 or a college student under the age of 24, and,
2. Had investment income (interest, dividends, and capital gains distribution) of less than $11,000 for the year, and,
3. Had no earned income from wages, salary, and tips, or other types of taxable income.
    

However, depending on your tax bracket, it may be more beneficial to have your child file their own return.  Be sure on the child's return to check the boxes:

• they can be claimed on someone else's return; and
• they are being claimed on someone else's return

This is very important because you want to claim them on your return

While they wouldn't get an exemption (because you are claiming them as a dependent), they would probably receive a standard deduction of $1,100 to reduce the taxable amount.
 

[bosso3]

Generally, You report your dependent's income on their income tax return, not on yours.

To determine if your dependent needs to file:

Use the IRS conversation at https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/do-i-need-to-file-a-tax-return

Click the "Begin" button at the bottom of the page and enter their information.

The result will tell you if they needs to file.

You can also refer to https://www.irs.gov/publications/p501#en_US_2021_publink[phone number removed]
In this link, it is addressed under "Who Must File."

Also https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc553 addresses some more unusual situations regarding a dependent's unearned income.

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