My daughter is 19, she lives with us, is in college and only earned $1,800.00 in 2012. She received the W2 which shows Inc Tax Withholdings of around $120.00. We claim her as a dependent. How can she get a refund of that withholding, since her income is not sufficient to pay Income Taxes..

She would need to file her own tax return. She would indicate on the return that she can be claimed as a dependent by someone else, so she would not have an exemption for herself. She should be able to get all the withholding back since her income is less than the standard deduction.

Agreed; she should go to online TaxAct.com; they should let he efile for free.

Agreed; she should go to online TaxAct.com; they should let he efile for free.

Thank you for your reply, but my question would be then, if she is our dependent, can she still file a 1040?

She WOULD have to file Form 1040 to file a return with claiming her own exemption, but the Online TaxAct program (TaxACT | Free Tax Preparation Software, File Taxes Online, Free E-filing (http://www.taxact.com)) should be able to handle that with no problem.

She WOULD have to file Form 1040 to file a return with claiming her own exemption, but the Online TaxAct program (TaxACT | Free Tax Preparation Software, File Taxes Online, Free E-filing (http://www.taxact.com)) should be able to handle that with no problem.

Great,. I use the PAID version of Taxact for our tax returns, so I am familiar with the program. So, you are saying that, even if we claim her as a dependant, she can also file her tax return and get that Inc. Tax withheld back?

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. Her standard deduction will more than offset the income, resulting in ZERO taxes.

Great!! Thank you so much for your help!

Gus

Glad to help!

Hi, I'm back. This is sort of a dumb obvious-reply question, but just in casee, here it goes...

Following the above topic, we agreed that my daughter will file her tax return, to try to get a refund for the Inc tax wittheld.

She also received a 1098-T (around 5000 Tuition and 4000 Scholarships). We (mom & dad filing jointly) cannot benefit from tax credits or education-expense deductions due to our AGI "phase-out" and the fact that we will use the standard deduction instead of Itemizing.

But, on the other hand, I guess she cannot include that info either, since WE are who paid in full for tuition and she is our dependent. I guess she must just leave college expenses and scholarships blank in her tax return,. correct?

It does not matter what she puts on her return for the Form 1098-T because the tax software will not let her claim any education credit if she does not claim her own personal exemption.

It does not matter what she puts on her return for the Form 1098-T because the tax software will not let her claim any education credit if she does not claim her own personal exemption.

Do you mean that, since she is still our dependent, she will not claim personal exemptions, and therefore, will not be eligible for any education credits or deductions, correct?

That is correct!

That is correct!

Thank you so much!!

Glad to help!