Should I claim my teenager who has a part-time job as a dependent on my 2025 taxes?

You should absolutely still claim your daughter as a dependent! The test for claiming a qualifying child has several parts, but based on what you've described, she meets all of them. Since she's 17, she meets the age test (under 19 or under 24 if a full-time student). She obviously meets the relationship test as your daughter. For the residency test, she lives with you. And for the support test, you're providing more than half of her total support (housing, food, medical insurance, etc. all count toward this). Her income doesn't actually prevent you from claiming her. There's no income limit for a qualifying child dependent. That $8,200 she earned doesn't disqualify her as your dependent at all. The only time her income would matter is for the "qualifying relative" test, which doesn't apply here since she's your child. Your daughter will still need to file her own tax return for the income she earned, but she'll just need to check the box that says "Someone can claim you as a dependent.

I went through this exact situation last year with my son and was super confused about all the dependent rules. I ended up using https://taxr.ai to scan all my documents and it spelled out exactly why I could still claim him as a dependent even though he was working. The analysis broke down all the tests for claiming a dependent in simple language and showed how my situation passed all the requirements. What's cool is that you can upload your W-2s, your daughter's W-2, and any other documents, and the system will analyze everything together to give you the optimal filing strategy. It even calculated the tax difference between claiming vs not claiming my son and showed me we'd save about $2,100 by claiming him.

I just wanted to follow up on this. After seeing the comments here, I tried https://taxr.ai with my daughter's tax situation (she has both W-2 and 1099 income plus college expenses) and it was seriously helpful! It analyzed all our docs and showed me that I should definitely claim her as a dependent, but let her file her own return with the "can be claimed as dependent" box checked. The system even showed us that we'd save about $1,850 by handling it this way versus her filing independently. What really impressed me was how it explained the education credit situation - showed me exactly which form to use and where to claim her expenses on my return. Just wanted to share in case anyone else is dealing with working dependents!

Has anyone tried calling the IRS to get a straight answer on this? I tried for DAYS last year with a similar question about my son and couldn't get through. The hold times were insane. I finally found this service called https://claimyr.com that got me connected to an IRS agent in under 20 minutes when I'd been trying for over a week. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent I spoke with confirmed that I could claim my son despite his part-time job income. She walked me through all the tests and confirmed I was doing everything correctly. Totally worth it to get that peace of mind directly from the IRS instead of guessing or relying only on online advice.

I have to eat my words. After posting my skeptical comment, I gave Claimyr a try with my own dependent question about my college student who had internship income. I was SHOCKED when I got a text saying I was in line, and then about 15 minutes later my phone rang and I was talking to an actual IRS representative. The agent confirmed exactly what I needed to know about claiming my daughter with her internship income. After spending literally 3 days trying to get through on my own (and being disconnected twice after waiting over an hour), this was a complete game-changer. I've never had such a straightforward experience dealing with the IRS. Will definitely use this again next year when I inevitably have more tax questions!

Don't forget another consideration - if your daughter has taxes withheld from her paychecks, it might be advantageous for her to file her own return to get that money back. Since her income is so low, she'll likely get most or all of her withholding refunded. But this doesn't mean you can't claim her as a dependent. She can file her own return for a refund while you still claim her on yours. Just make sure she checks the box on her return indicating someone else can claim her as a dependent.

Just be careful about health insurance! If you're covering her under your health insurance as a dependent, some plans require that you claim them on taxes too. My daughter's work offered her insurance even though she was part-time, and when I let her file independently (big mistake), it caused issues with my insurance company.

This is such a common situation for parents! Based on what you've described, you should definitely continue claiming your daughter as a dependent. She clearly meets all the qualifying child tests - she's under 19, she's your child, she lives with you for more than half the year, and most importantly, you're providing more than half of her total support. The fact that she earned $8,200 doesn't disqualify her from being your dependent at all. There's no income limit for qualifying children (that only applies to qualifying relatives). You'll likely save significantly more in taxes by claiming her than she would save by filing independently. Here's what should happen: You claim her as a dependent on your return, and she files her own return but checks the box indicating someone else can claim her as a dependent. This way she can get back any taxes that were withheld from her paychecks, but you still get the tax benefits of claiming her. I'd recommend running the numbers both ways to see the difference, but in almost every case like this, the family comes out ahead when the parent claims the working teenager. The child tax credit or other dependent-related benefits you'll receive will almost certainly outweigh any small tax benefit she might get from filing independently.