i am single, have kids, worked 2 months as a waitress and i babysat my friends kids. How would I file ?

Question

I am not claimed as a dependent on anyones taxes. What would be the best way to file?

Other people i my house do file taxes. I watched my friends kids for 9 months

oh, one more thing. I get childsupport from my daughters father. Does that get put on my taxes also?

Answer 1

You can either file as "single" or "head of household." You would get a $3,300 exemption amount for yourself and each of your children. If you paid over half the costs of keeping up a home, then you could file as "head of household", assuming no one else files as HOH in your residence. You may be eligible for the earned income credit. The child tax credit is $1,000 per child.

You need to report your wages from your W-2 that you should have received from your employer. I am assuming your friend did not give you either a "W-2" or "1099" for your babysitting services. This is not a big deal, but if your friend is claiming that you provided daycare in order to get the child care credit on her tax return, then you would also need to report the income that she claimed she paid you.

If this is your only income, you probably dont have any taxable income after your exemptions.

Answer 2

Child support doesn't have to be declared as income. Baby sitting income should be, but can be offset to a degree by expenses related to producing the income such as lunches you provided, diapers you furnished, and numerous other things you may have furnished. Wages (and any tips not shown on the W-2) should be claimed as income. Unless you made more money than I think you did babysitting, it won't matter if you file Head of Household, or Single with Dependents as you are going to "zero" out your tax liability either way and pay no taxes due to your dependents. As someone else noted in their answer, there can only be one Head of Household at a given address. If someone else in your house provides more of the total household support than you do, I would suggest they are the Head of Household and you just file Single with Dependents. I'm sure other tax prep firms have the same policy as Block does, but Block for sure has a policy that since they can't tell you up front exactly what your return is going to cost until they've done it, their policy is when you get to the point where they can tell you the cost, you have the opportunity to back out with no charge to you if you are dissatisfied in any way. They won't give you their work, but you can just ask for your papers back and go elsewhere if you think the cost is not worth the value provided to you, or you want a second opinion. Just be sure to ask for a Tax Pro with several years experience in "Schedule C income" when you go in.

Answer 3

I'm not sure what you mean about "the best way to file". One suggestion would be to take your records to a VITA or TCE site near you - they'll prepare your taxes at no charge. To find a site, go to irs.gov and type VITA into the search box.

You'll need your W-2 from your waitress job, along with your records of any unreported tips, and your records of what you were paid for babysitting and any expenses that you had due to the babysitting. You'll also need social security numbers (preferably the cards) for yourself and your kids. A copy of your tax return from last year would be a good thing to take with you if you have it.

Answer 4

how long did ubabysit? u can file head of household if nobody else files at the place where u live