<p>I am a part-time student who just left his parent's house. I left due to
a disagreement. I recently started working as an independent contractor, and my parents started charging me rent. Their rent is too much for what they offer (a tiny bedroom). Then my step-father decided to threaten my leaving by saying he will claim me as dependent on his taxes. While he can do that for the last tax year, I want to make damn sure he can't next year.</p>
<p>I provide for all of my costs now including rent, tuition, and will soon purchase my own health insurance. I now live at a separate address. How can I make sure that ****er doesn't mess with my ability to claim a standard deduction?</p>
<p>If you are now living entirely on your own, he cannot claim you as a dependent. Period. Spend some time at [Internal</a> Revenue Service](<a href=“http://www.irs.gov%5DInternal”>http://www.irs.gov) and print out the instructions for the various tax forms that you will be filing a year from now.</p>
<p>If next year you are still concerned about this issue, file your tax return as early as possible. Don’t worry in particular whether or not it is entirely correct. Just file it. Then when you do have the last of your paperwork collected, file a 1040x (amended return) to account for any corrections necessary.</p>
<p>Put the shoe on the other foot- him claiming you is going to make him subject to audit, which is not something he is going to want. Matching up your social security number on the two returns will be easy for the IRS.</p>
<p>Save all of your receipts for groceries, gas, health care, canceled checks for your rent, statements for your health insurance premiums, etc. and keep them organized in a file. File your taxes claiming yourself. If you get called to an audit, you have the proof, not him. They will fine him and he can get in a lot of trouble for tax fraud. I wouldn’t worry too much about your end of things, just have your paperwork in order just in case.</p>
<p>I’m a CPA. I would never advise filing before you had the correct forms and amounts. Amended returns are more subject to audit.</p>
<p>If you both claim you as a dependent, you will each receive a notice. If you were entitled to the exemption, you do not have to do anything.</p>
<p>E-file and do it before him. The first one to hit the system will get the exemption. The 2nd return to hit the system will be rejected. The 2nd party would have to file a paper return to claim the exemption.</p>
<p>Do you need his info for FAFSA and financial aid? Pyhrrhic are just that. I know some folks who just refused to give the info, so until you are eligible to be independent for fin aid, you are in trouble. They even refuse to sign the form verifying to the college they are refusing.</p>
<p>Yes I know about FAFSA. Needed it to get into some great colleges but parents didn’t want to give information. Parents wanted me to go to their choice of college and pick their major, so that’s how they controlled me. Made the decision last semester to drop to part time and started looking for a full time job. Found one, so now I am free to switch majors and what not. Only thing is I will graduate in 5 instead of 4.</p>
<p>That’s true for being claimed as a qualifying child but a child can also be claimed as a qualifying relative if they pass all 4 of the tests for that.</p>
<p>But for the OP for 2013 given what was stated, he won’t be able to be claimed.</p>
<p>Oh I agree that filing a possibly inaccurate return that needs amendment later isn’t optimum, but if one needs to file before a crazed relative enter the mix, it would be a reasonable strategy to follow. If AcerRubrum (great name by the way!) has a straightforward income, good interest records, and clear records for school expenses there is every chance that his/her tax return could be filed before the end of January.</p>
<p>Anyone can claim anything. Let there be no mistake about it. It doesn’t mean that it is legal or will hold under investigation and challenge, but yes, you can claim anyone in the world as your dependent and see if it flies. In this case, it probably would since the precendence is there.</p>
<p>Some people file an inaccurate return in that all the info is it is not complete just to get it filed. Maybe they are waiting for a document or know they are missing some info but the file it anyways. Or the file it with bad information. An inaccurate return might be flagged when the IRS gets conflicting info from w2s and 1099s and other such documents, or if something triggers an alert or for a randome check, but sometimes they do get through. They do not verify every single dependent for instance every single year.</p>
<p>Acer, your bigger problem is the fact that you are working as an independent contractor. That means that no money is being withheld from your pay check for taxes, and you will have to pay self employment tax, which is roughly 15% of your income after deducting work-related expenses.</p>
<p>You need to familiarize yourself with a schedule c form and keep detailed records of all income and expenses – and be aware that you may owe far more than you anticipated in taxes next year. Self-employment tax basically means that you are paying both the employee + employer share of the FICA withholding. And that is in addition to regular income tax. </p>
<p>You really won’t be able to file your return next year until you receive your 1099 — but you can at least start tracking expenses now so you won’t be starting from scratch for your schedule C. If you have a car and your job requires you to drive to different locations, then your work-related expenses or mileage is a business expense you can deduct, so you should also have a log in your car to keep track of that.</p>