Should my daughter claim me?

[MichaelS86]

So my daughter is 18 as of march 5, 2024 she started working right after graduating high school, she works as a state C/O she made 14,309$, but they didn’t withhold any Federal taxes, state yes, she lives with me the whole year and still lives with me, I (mom) worked in 2024 but only for the last month or so, I made 825$ and they withheld 33$ in federal taxes, my question is, should I claim her as a relative dependent or should she claim me as a relative dependent?? She also helped support me financially. Thanks in advance.

[ThomasM125]

For your daughter to claim you as a dependent, she would have to furnish over one half of your support. The income you earn is not as important as the support she furnishes to you, as you may have money from savings or social security benefits that you use for support outside of your income earned during the year. The same would apply to you claiming her.

Once she reached age 19, if she is not a full time student, you can only claim her if she earns less than $5,050 per year, and the same would apply to her claiming you.

Support would include things such as the basic necessities of life like food, clothing, medical care, education, transportation, household repairs and maintenance, utilities, etc. You can learn more here .

You can learn more about qualifying as a dependent here:  Rules for claiming dependents on Taxes

[Edited 1/24/25 at 9:05 PM PST]

@MichaelS86 

[Opus 17]

It's hard to say, you did not provide enough information. 

Because your daughter is 18, you could claim her as a dependent if she lived in your home more than half the year, and you provided more than half her support.  It sounds like that is probably not the case, since you say she supported you.  However, I don't think two people can live on $15,000 (or teach me how) so I wonder if you have child support, social security, alimony, government support, or were living off savings.  If you were using your savings or social security benefits to support the family, you might have provided more than half your daughter's support, but if you had alimony, child support or government assistance, you probably did not provide more than half her support.  But only you know that.

If you claimed your daughter as a dependent, you would get very little tax benefit with only $800 of wages.  A few dollars of EITC and a few dollars of the Additional Child Tax Credit.

Alternatively, your daughter could claim you as a dependent if she paid more than half your support, and you have less than $5050 of taxable income (counting not just wages, but also interest, dividends, or pension withdrawals).   Here again, the more than half the support comes into question.  If you received support from outside the two of you (government, charity, alimony, child support, etc.) then even though your daughter earned more, she might not have paid more than half your support.

Again, however, your daughter would get very little tax benefit from claiming you.  A few dollars of the dependent credit, and maybe a few dollars of EITC.  (She could qualify for the $500 credit for "other dependents", but at $15,000 of income, her tax owed would be less than $100, so the credit would only pay up to the tax she owed and not more.  EITC could give her a little bit of a refund.

The only way to know for sure is to make test returns both ways, but I think that your daughter claiming you (if the support test allows it) will work out better, since your income is so low that you don't even need to file a tax return.  If you have outside support so that she can't show she paid more than half your support, then she would file single with no dependents and you probably don't need to file at all, unless you want a refund of the $33 withholding.  

[MichaelS86]

My live in boyfriend of 17 years also paid for much of everything and he did his taxes and claimed OUR daughter because he made all the income for 2024 (18 yrold is from previous marriage).. also yes she provided help with food, and car cost and bills.

[KeshaH]

As @Opus 17 mentioned, in order for your daughter to claim you as a dependent, she will have to have provided more than half of your support. She helped with food, vehicle, and some of the bills however that might not be enough to meet the requirement of more than half.

The best way to determine if you meet the support test is to complete the IRS's worksheet for determining support. It will help you list out the cost of all of your expenses and you can see if you meet the test. 

@MichaelS86