How to handle 1099-NEC for high school teenager on family tax return

Your daughter will need to file her own tax return since she received a 1099-NEC. Even though the amount is small, self-employment taxes kick in when net earnings are $400 or more. Here's what you should know: - You can still claim her as a dependent on your return as long as she meets the qualifying child tests (which it sounds like she does) - She'll need to file Form 1040 and Schedule C to report her self-employment income - She may owe self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare) which is roughly 15.3% of her net earnings - She'll need her own tax return, but you can still help her complete it The good news is FreeTaxUSA should work fine for her return too. Make sure she checks the box indicating someone else can claim her as a dependent. This is important for both of your returns to be processed correctly.

Hey there, I went through something similar with my son's first 1099-NEC last year and it was confusing! I tried figuring it out myself but ended up getting mixed advice from friends and family. Finally discovered https://taxr.ai which analyzed his 1099 form and gave me crystal clear guidance on exactly what we needed to do. The site actually explained that for kids with 1099 income, there are specific rules about self-employment taxes that many people miss. It confirmed he needed his own return but showed me how to properly maintain his dependent status on our main return. The site also pointed out some deductions related to his work that I had no idea we could claim!

Just wanted to follow up - I decided to try taxr.ai with my daughter's babysitting 1099 situation that I mentioned earlier. It was actually super helpful! It confirmed she needed her own return but walked me through exactly how to handle the self-employment taxes while still keeping her as our dependent. The best part was it found that she could deduct some of her transportation costs and even a portion of her cell phone since she used it to coordinate with clients. That reduced her taxable income by almost $200! I was worried this would be complicated but it actually made the whole process pretty straightforward.

I had this exact same problem last year with my teenager's first 1099! After spending HOURS on hold with the IRS trying to get answers (literally 3+ hours each time only to get disconnected), I found this service called Claimyr at https://claimyr.com that got me through to an actual IRS agent in under 20 minutes. The agent confirmed everything about the filing requirements for my kid and answered all my specific questions about claiming him as a dependent while he filed his own return. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Honestly it was a lifesaver because I was getting different answers from everyone I asked, and I needed to hear directly from the IRS to be sure I wasn't messing anything up.

Well I have to eat my words. After seeing so many positive comments I decided to try Claimyr when I needed to ask about my son's 1099 situation. I was absolutely convinced it wouldn't work, but I was desperate after trying for days to get through to the IRS myself. I'm shocked to report it actually worked exactly as advertised. They called me back in about 15 minutes and connected me directly to an IRS agent who answered all my questions about my son's filing requirements. The agent confirmed he needed his own return because of the self-employment taxes but walked me through exactly how to handle it while still claiming him as my dependent. Honestly still can't believe it worked so well after all my failed attempts to reach the IRS directly.

One tip that might help - make sure your daughter keeps track of any expenses related to the work she did! My son did some social media management last year and got a 1099-NEC, and we were able to deduct things like: - Portion of his cell phone bill used for work - Software subscriptions he needed - Transportation costs to client meetings This reduced his actual taxable income quite a bit. Just make sure she has some kind of documentation for these expenses.

Don't forget that if your daughter files her own return, she needs to check the box that says "Someone can claim you as a dependent" on her 1040! I made this mistake with my kid last year and it caused issues with both of our returns being processed.

Great question! I dealt with this exact situation with my 16-year-old last year. Here's what I learned: Your daughter definitely needs to file her own tax return since she has self-employment income over $400. The $1,150 on her 1099-NEC means she'll owe self-employment taxes (about 15.3% on the net earnings). Good news though - you can absolutely still claim her as a dependent on your joint return as long as she meets the qualifying child requirements (under 19, lives with you more than half the year, etc.). A few important things to remember: - She needs to check the "Someone else can claim you as a dependent" box on her return - Consider any business expenses she had for the graphic design work (software, supplies, etc.) - these can reduce her taxable income - She'll file Form 1040 with Schedule C for the business income - Both federal AND state returns will likely be required The process isn't too complicated once you know the rules. FreeTaxUSA should handle her return just fine too. Just make sure both returns are consistent about the dependency claim to avoid any processing delays.