[wsmommy]

Hello,
Our 18 year old daughter is a senior in high school and a special needs person. She has just started receiving SSI benefits this past summer of 2009. It is the only income she receives. This is all new to us, so we have some questions concerning taxes:

1) Must she file a tax return and claim her SSI as income?

2) She pays us a monthly amount for room and board. Can we still claim her as a dependent on our taxes?

3) Do we have to claim the room and board money that she pays as income on our taxes?

Thanks for any answers you may have for this.

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

1) If the SSI benefits are her only income source, then no tax return should be needed.

2) The fact that she is still in school makes the support issue irrelevent; you can claim her as a dependent up until age 24 as long she is in school. After that, if you pay for more than half of her total support for the year, you can claim her as a dependent.

3) No.