Dependent Tax Filing Calculator

Dependent tax filing is an important criterion that affects your claim of child tax credit or child & dependent care expense claim by you. If you claim these tax credits, one of the criteria that must be fulfilled is the tax filing by the people you claimed as dependent on your tax return. The dependent tax filing calculator will make your life easy in finding out if your dependent indeed needs to file his/her tax return.

Dependent tax filing calculator

Dependent tax filing conditions

Dependent tax filing conditions are basically divided on the basis of the filing status of the dependents, their age, and whether they are blind. The earned income, unearned income, and gross income limits are all different for –status, age, and the fact of being blind. Following are the conditions for filing tax returns by dependents.Read more on IRS blog

What is unearned income? Unearned income is those types of income that are not associated with human labor or effort. For example, earnings such as interest, dividends, and capital gains are all examples of earned income of a person. Therefore, you can understand that Earned Income means salary, wages, professional fees, and other amounts received as pay for work you actually perform.

What is Earned income ? (only for purposes of filing requirements and the standard deduction) also includes any part of a taxable scholarship. See chapter 1 of Pub. 970 for more information on taxable and nontaxable scholarships.

(I) Dependent is single, below 65 years, and not a blind person

Then, the dependent must file a return if he/she has unearned income is more than $1,150 or $12,950 or the gross income is more than the larger of the following two amounts :

• $1,150, or
• Dependent’s earned income (up to $12,550) plus $400.

II) Dependent is single, either 65 years or more, OR a blind person but not both

Then, the dependent must file a return if he/she has unearned income is more than $2,900 or $14,700 or the gross income is more than the larger of the following two amounts :

• $2,900, or
• His/her earned income (up to $12,550) plus $2,150.

III) Dependent is single,65 years or more, AND a blind person

Then, the dependent must file a return if he/she has unearned income is more than $4,650 or $16,450 or the gross income is more than the larger of the following two amounts :

• $4,650, or
• His/her earned income (up to $12,550) plus $3,900.

V) Dependent is married, filing jointly, and is below 65 years and not blind

The same rule as for dependent is single, below 65 years, and not a blind person as referred above in Point (1) above.

VI) Dependent is married, filing jointly, and is 65 years or above but not blind

Then, the dependent must file a return if he/she has unearned income is more than $2,550 or $14,350 or the gross income is more than the larger of following two amounts :

• $2,550, or
• His/her earned income (up to $12,550) plus $1,800.

Claiming dependent is one of the 7 reasons why filing tax return is compulsory for Individuals.