Hi everyone, I'm a mom and have my daughter full time since birth. She is 17 and I have always filed as HOH. When I filled my taxes last month, The tax man said because she is 17, I cannot claim her and have to file as Single. I owe now because of the 3 months she is 17.
I was talking to my friends, and they said it is weird that he said that because she is still a minor and the tax website said I can claim her up until she is 19. She is 17 and will be 18 in September. He did mention that I qualified for the $500 child tax credit but I didn't receive because i owe $900? Also, i did have 0 deductions the whole entire year and im confuse why I even owe… HELP me understand.
Posted by Waterlily823
5 Comments
Oh my. That was a big error the tax person made. The good news is you can amend after you get your refund to get the tax savings anyway.
If your daughter lives with you, and you pay over half the expenses of the household, she qualifies you for head of household. The same at 17 as she did every year before this.
You are still head of household for the status.
The thing that changes at 17 is the child tax credit reduces from $2K to $500 for those eligible. Sounds like they were blending those/mixing them up? Hopefully you still got that, but if you owe it would just reduce your amount owed.
Thats wrong i was able to claim the year mine turned 18. Need a better tax preparer.
You’re most definitely HOH, like someone else mentioned, the child tax credit is affected but there’s also other child tax credit that can be taken depending if in school. But some tax pro’s def make mistakes!
That mistake is a bad one. It’s sad actually. She needs to buy better tax software but maybe there is something about the daughter’s living situation with you that caused it or something about support or elsewhere. There really isn’t an age limit for a dependent for HOH that I am aware of in my memory. Support, living standards, income tests and relationships can apply. I just got off the phone with a client who was insisting her return was incorrect because her girlfriend got a 20,000 refund and she owes money. Can ChatGPT help me out to say something nice? I sure don’t feel like saying something nice to her right now.