Should I Claim Myself on my taxes?

Question

Okay this past school year I lived on campus at an out of state institution and my mother paid my school loan bills and also finanically supported me. This year beginning August 1 i will be moving into my apartment and will have a full time job paying my own bills taking out my own loans and basically becoming finanically independent from my mother other than the loan taken out from the previous year that she agreed to pay. I start new job next week and I didn't know rather or not I should claim myself or should my mom claim me. Help

Answer 1

You should come to some kind of agreement with your mom to go ahead and claim you this year because she would have supported you 7 months and you yourself 5 months.  It will really help her to claim you but it will hurt you.  If your not going to make a lot of money during the year it really want hurt you as bad as her.  Maybe she can give you some of the tax money when she gets it for you continuing to let her claim you

Answer 2

I assume you are under age 24.  

You mother is qualified to claim you unless you paid for over half of your own support.  From your information it is not possible to say whether you are going to do that or not.  It depends on how much your expenses are, how much you are going to earn, and how much your mother is going to contribute to your support.  Your mother does not have to pay over half of your support to claim you, so the burden of proof is on you to show that you paid over half.

You and your mother should review who paid what and figure out whether you can claim yourself or not.  If you and your mother both claim you, it is you who will have to prove your claim to the IRS, because your mother by default gets your exemption because of your relationship, student status, and age.

Answer 3

It sounds from what you say that for this year yet, it's very possible that you are still a dependent of youIr mom.  On your W-4, claim zero.  Then at the end of the year, figure out whether or not she can claim you or not.  If she can't, then you'd get the extra withholding refunded.

Answer 4

It is better for you to claim yourself as an independent in that situation, since that is accurate. Your mom on the other hand, since she could no longer claim you as a dependent, would have higher taxes, so it would effect her more.

But in your situation, it seems the best fit is to claim yourself as independent.

-Paige