<p>My dauaghter attends college in New York city and earn her money over there but her residency (driver's license) is in Florida where there is no state income tax. Anyone knows where she should file a state return? Can she file a federal as Florida resident?
Thanks.</p>
<p>The dependent student’s residency is determined by where the parents live. If you’re residents of Florida, then your daughter is a residents of Florida. She would need to file New York state nonresident tax return and the federal tax return.</p>
<p>Thanks. That is what I thought but some of my friends whose children attend colleges out of Florida. They claim them as dependents with their children’s summer part time income adding to the family income total. This way they don’t file the college local tax return. Do you think this is a way?
Thanks.</p>
<p>Your friends add their kids’ incomes to theirs on their federal tax return? I sure hope not. There are some very rare circumstances when this is done, but the vast majority of the time, each person files their own return. Combining incomes is permitted for married folks filing as married. But unless I’m totally wrong, the kids incomes do NOT get added to their parents on the federal tax return.</p>
<p>I don’t know where people get this idea. Earned income by dependents needs to be reported on the dependent’s own return along with unearned income if the dependent has a high enough income to be required to file. If there was any withholding, the only way to get a refund is for the dependent to file. </p>
<p>The rules for how much income requires a dependent to file are here along with other info about children and dependents filing:</p>
<p>[Publication</a> 929 (2012), Tax Rules for Children and Dependents](<a href=“Publication 929 (2021), Tax Rules for Children and Dependents | Internal Revenue Service”>Publication 929 (2021), Tax Rules for Children and Dependents | Internal Revenue Service)</p>
<p>Those parents doing this are paying more tax than necessary and aren’t recovering any withholding.</p>
<p>And how you file federal has nothing to do with how you file state, each state has their own rules about who must file.</p>
<p>Adding your child’s income to your tax return is incorrect on a number of fronts. The primary one being that in all likelihood your child may not have made enough money to owe taxes, and if they have, then their tax rate is very likely less than their parent’s tax rate. </p>
<p>As noted above, your child may also need to file state and local tax returns in in the state and city where they have earned the income. Check with the state however. If no state and local taxes have been taken out, then most states don’t require taxes be filed if the amount earned was below a certain amount.</p>
<p>Under certain circumstances, parents can report their child’s unearned income on their own return (but never their child’s earned income!). </p>
<p>[Publication</a> 929 (2012), Tax Rules for Children and Dependents](<a href=“Publication 929 (2021), Tax Rules for Children and Dependents | Internal Revenue Service”>Publication 929 (2021), Tax Rules for Children and Dependents | Internal Revenue Service)</p>
<p>Parent’s Election To Report Child’s Interest and Dividends
You may be able to elect to include your child’s interest and dividend income (including capital gain distributions) on your tax return. If you do, your child will not have to file a return. </p>
<p>You can make this election only if all the following conditions are met. </p>
<p>•Your child was under age 19 (or under age 24 if a full-time student) at the end of the year.</p>
<p>•Your child had income only from interest and dividends (including capital gain distributions and Alaska Permanent Fund dividends).</p>
<p>•The child’s gross income was less than $9,500.</p>
<p>•The child is required to file a return unless you make this election.</p>
<p>•The child does not file a joint return for the year.</p>
<p>•No estimated tax payment was made for the year, and no overpayment from the previous year (or from any amended return) was applied to this year under your child’s name and social security number. </p>
<p>•No federal income tax was taken out of your child’s income under the backup withholding rules.</p>
<p>•You are the parent whose return must be used when applying the special tax rules for children. (See Which Parent’s Return To Use , earlier.) </p>
<p>These conditions are also shown in Figure 1.</p>