My wife and I got married late last year. Well, she's 20 years old, lives on her own, goes to school full-time, and works a full-time job. Obviously, there's no way that he can claim her as a dependent. And yet, her father is trying to claim her on his taxes. She's been delayed in getting her W-2, and he's already filed his taxes. What will happen when we file our return, and he's already tried to claim her on his?
2007-01-27 04:26:21 · 5 answers · asked by Justin 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Taxes ➔ United States
She didn't live with her father AT ALL out of the year. And I don't think he gave her a dime towards helping her support herself.
2007-01-27 04:53:03 · update #1
Since her father has already filed a return claiming her as an exemption you will probably have to file a paper return. If you attempt to e-file your return will be rejected if her father's return has already been processed.
When you file your return, the IRS will do one of two things. They will either ask both of you to prove your status, or they will just recalculate her father's return and bill him for the additional tax.
Most likely the IRS will be in touch with both of you. You'll have to provide proof that you're married -- a copy of your marriage license will do fine -- and the IRS will then accept your return.
Since her father won't be able to prove that he's entitled to claim an exemption for her any more, he'll be billed for the difference. If the IRS suspects that he deliberately filed a fraudulent return, he may have other legal problems as well.
Addendum: It doesn't matter how much support her father provided for her or how long she lived with him before you got married. As soon as you got married, her father lost the right to claim her as a dependent.
A taxpayer generally cannot claim as a dependent someone who files a joint return with another taxpayer. The only exception to this rule is if BOTH you and your wife earned less than $3,300 each AND had no unearned income AND the only reason that you filed a joint return was to get a refund of any withheld income taxes. That does not appear to be the case here, so her father cannot claim her as a dependent. See IRS Pub 501, page 9 for a full explanation of this. Here's a link: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf
2007-01-27 04:35:31 · answer #1 · answered by Bostonian In MO 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
he would have to prove that he supported her...if she worked a full-time job and made enough money to support herself then he would be hard pressed to prove that he did....the two of you (assuming normal circumstances) should be filing married filing jointly....there are certain (rare) intances where a parent can claim a child for the personal exemption and the child is married but as i said it is rare....your wifes father needs to file a 1040x and remove her from his return and either a pay back whatever refund he received or pay the additional tax from the loss of the exemption.....
2007-01-27 12:37:48 · answer #2 · answered by cookiesmom 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If they give her trouble about claiming herself, she will have to prove that she was independent last year (she would have to show her full time job and schooling for more than six months of last year...that defines independence). When that happens, there is a good chance that her dad will get in trouble and be forced to pay taxes. He shouldn't have tried that.
2007-01-27 12:42:50 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
nothing as full time student she is tax exempt. Father can still claim if she lived w/ for at least 6 mos. out of the year or has been her main source of income for that year prior to u getting married.I hope I HELPED YOU.
2007-01-27 12:38:44 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
PArents can claim students in school. It depends if he supported her and paid for her school etc.. If he did not support her at all he should not claim her.
2007-01-27 15:53:20 · answer #5 · answered by BirdDog 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋