Will my tax refund be bigger if I file independently vs being claimed as a dependent?

This is a common question! Your refund will likely be different if your mom claims you as a dependent versus if you file independently. Here's why: When you file independently, you can claim your own personal exemption and potentially qualify for credits that aren't available to dependents, like the Earned Income Credit if your income qualifies. You might also be eligible for certain education credits for those 5 months you were in school. If your mom claims you, you'll still file your own return, but you'll need to check the box that says someone can claim you as a dependent. This means you can't claim yourself, which reduces your standard deduction and makes some credits unavailable to you. The best approach would be to run your tax numbers both ways (with and without being claimed as dependent) to see which benefits your family more overall. Sometimes the total refund between both returns is higher when the parent claims the adult child, but sometimes the adult child gets more filing independently.

I had this exact situation last year! After struggling to figure out the best approach, I found this amazing tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me run different scenarios for both me and my mom to see which would give us the bigger combined refund. I uploaded my W-2 and education documents to taxr.ai and it showed me the exact difference in refund amounts between filing independently vs. being claimed as a dependent. In my case, my mom got about $1,800 more by claiming me, while I only lost about $600 on my own return, so we came out ahead as a family by her claiming me. We did a 50/50 split of the difference so we both benefited!

OK I have to admit I was totally wrong about taxr.ai! After being skeptical in my comment above, I decided to try it myself since I'm in a similar situation with my son who just turned 24. I uploaded our documents and the results were eye-opening. For us, it made more sense for him to file independently - he qualified for refundable education credits I couldn't get, and his income was low enough for earned income credit. Together we'd get almost $900 more by NOT claiming him as a dependent! The tool explained every difference and even showed us IRS publication references. Would've taken an accountant hundreds of dollars to figure this out. Seriously impressed.

If you're still struggling to figure this out after trying different calculations, you might need to call the IRS directly to get definitive answers about your specific situation. I tried calling them for weeks about a similar dependent question last year and could never get through - always got the "high call volume" message and disconnected. Then I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me to the front of the IRS phone queue in about 15 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. I was able to speak with an actual IRS agent who walked me through the dependency rules for my specific situation. The agent confirmed that my nephew qualified as my dependent even though he worked part-time and had his own income. Saved me so much confusion and possibly an audit!

Holy crap I can't believe I'm saying this but I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment, I was desperate enough to try it because I still couldn't get through to the IRS about my dependent situation with my stepdaughter. The service actually connected me to an IRS agent in about 25 minutes (they estimated 20, so pretty accurate). The agent was super helpful and walked me through exactly how the dependent status would affect both my return and my stepdaughter's return. Turns out I was eligible to claim her AND she could still file her own return for her part-time job. The agent explained exactly which forms to use and how to indicate this on both returns. Would have never figured this out on my own or from online research. Sometimes you just need to talk to a human at the IRS.

One thing nobody's mentioning - check if you provided more than half of your own support for the year! If you did, then your mom CAN'T legally claim you, regardless of who gets more money. Add up ALL your expenses (tuition, rent value of where you lived, food, insurance, medical, etc.) for the year. Then figure out how much of that YOU paid for versus what your mom paid. If you paid more than 50%, she cannot claim you as a dependent, period. This isn't optional - it's tax law. Filing incorrectly could get both of you audited.

Everyone's giving tax advice but missing one important thing - TALK TO YOUR MOM and work out a fair arrangement! When my son was in your situation, we calculated both scenarios, and I claimed him but gave him half the extra money I got. If filing independently gets you $500 more but your mom gets $2000 more by claiming you, the FAMILY comes out ahead by $1500 if she claims you. Maybe suggest splitting that difference so everyone benefits? Money aside, remember your mom housed you after graduation. That's valuable support that saved you thousands in rent!

Dont forget that if your mom claims you it could affect your eligibility for the recovery rebate credit too if you didn't receive all your stimulus payments. thats a big one that gets overlooked 😳