The IDOC wants D’s federal tax forms but she won’t be filing. I will fill out the non -tax filer’s statement instead. I believe if a student earns less than $6600 they don’t have to file, unless of course they will expect a refund. Is this the correct way to complete the requirement. How many students actually earn more than $6600/year? Seems high to me.
If she’s a dependent on your return, then the filing threshold is $6200 if at least $5850 is earned income. The $6200 represents the standard deduction for a single person. It’s not an arbitrary number only for students. She doesn’t get her exemption, you do.
Single dependents—Were you either age 65 or older or blind?
No. You must file a return if any of the following apply.
- Your unearned income was more than $1,000.
- Your earned income was more than $6,200.
- Your gross income was more than the larger of—
a. $1,000, or
b.Your earned income (up to $5,850) plus $350.
Some of my kids did. And if they get generous merit money at colleges that are above and beyond tuition and other qualified educational expenses, and work summer, part time jobs, they can too. My college kid worked every bit he could over the summer and also during the school year, and he is over the threshold for 2014 and will have to file. My high schooler, does not have to file.
D makes about $4K working summers in high school so its possible that she could reach higher amounts if she works during the college school year as well. Hadn’t thought about it that way. Though I’ve told her that if she manages to save $3000 each summer for college she doesn’t have to work more than 10 hours/week (spending $$) while taking classes. The remainder of her summer earnings pays for car expenses and fun.
If your DD gets work study and also gets QEE covered by finanical/merit aid, she can also go over that $6K threshold in a year. I had to laugh when my oldest had to cough up tax payments. He was outraged. All of his friends and peers were getting refunds and that what they were all talking about when it came to tax season in his crowd, and he had to come up with money.
What difference does it make if she does file? It’s no big deal. I have one who files to get back the withholding and one who will have to file now because of excess scholarships. It takes no time at all, and then we have the filings so we don’t have to fill out the non-filer’s forms. Push some buttons and it’s all completed.
She filed two years ago to get back her withholdings but her boss has since made her exempt. Its not a big deal, but its a whole lot easier to fill out the one page non tax-filer’s statement for sure.
It takes about five minutes to complete a 1040EZ. It’s a half a page long. The 1040a isn’t all that much longer.
If she has no withholding, and no reason to file taxes, then yes, do the non-filers statement. But really it will probably take you as long to get that and complete it as it would to free file using a 1040EZ form.
NEPatsGirl, it’s probably already taken care of but your D can file 1040EZ online for free from TurboTax. It took less than 10 minutes then I just uploaded the PDF to IDOC.
Thanks, I did the non-filer statement, three lines, voila, done.