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The IRS Presents Five Important Facts about Dependents and Exemptions
When you prepare to file your tax return, there are two things that will factor into your tax situation: dependents and exemptions. Here are five important facts the IRS wants you to know about dependents and exemptions before you file your 2009 tax return.
- If someone else claims you as a dependent, you may still be required to file your own tax return. Whether or not you must file a return depends on several factors, including the amount of your unearned, earned or gross income, your marital status, any special taxes you owe and, any advance Earned Income Tax Credit payments you received.
- Exemptions reduce your taxable income. There are two types of exemptions: personal exemptions and exemptions for dependents. For each exemption you can deduct $3,650 on your 2009 tax return. Exemption amounts are reduced for taxpayers whose adjusted gross income is above certain levels, depending on your filing status.
- If you are a dependent, you may not claim an exemption. If someone else – such as your parent – claims you as a dependent, you may not claim your personal exemption on your own tax return.
- Your spouse is never considered your dependent. On a joint return, you may claim one exemption for yourself and one for your spouse. If you’re filing a separate return, you may claim the exemption for your spouse only if they had no gross income, are not filing a joint return, and were not the dependent of another taxpayer.
- Some people cannot be claimed as your dependent. Generally, you may not claim a married person as a dependent if they file a joint return with their spouse. Also, to claim someone as a dependent, that person must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. resident alien, U.S. national or resident of Canada or Mexico for some part of the year. There is an exception to this rule for certain adopted children. See IRS Publication 501, Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information for additional tests to determine who can be claimed as a dependent.
For more information on exemptions, dependents and whether or not you or your dependent needs to file a tax return, see IRS Publication 501. The publication is available on IRS.gov or can be ordered by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).
Links:
- IRS Publication 501, Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information
Are You Upset With More Tax Tips?
By Stacie Clifford Kitts, CPA
Today I received an upsetting tweet from a tweeter @eZeetax. Mr. eZeetax stated the following:
“you are copying and pasting IRS newsletter without even linking to the original article. Major FAIL.”
Although I mention on my About Stacie’s More Tax Tips home page that besides original commentary and tax information, I also post information directly from the IRS, I thought it might be a good idea to explain in more detail to people such as @eZeetax how this site works.
I’m no journalism expert, but I get the whole credit your source thing. Here are my observations – for what they are worth.
When a website picks up an article that has been released by a news service, they will for the most part cite the source including the author of the article. For example if a website picks up an Associated Press article, they will show that by placing “AP” before the first line of the article. There may even be a link back to an author’s website, as in this example of a post by CNN from a Frisky author, where CNN is linking to the Frisky website [but not necessarily back to that particular article].
Although I do not link back to the IRS’s website on each post written by an IRS author, I do link back to the IRS on my site. I do not consider that to be a major “fail” as indicated by @eZeetax. To be clear, I only do this with IRS posts. I never repost something written by another blogger or journalist without indicating a proper cite and link. When posting something written by the IRS be it Tax Tips or News Releases, I always indicate that the article is from the IRS either in the body of the post or in the title. I never take credit for an article that I do not write. For example, a post titled “The IRS Presents,” indicates that – duh, the IRS presents this information. If I have written an article, it will include By Stacie Clifford Kitts, CPA at the top of the page.
The idea of Stacie’s More Tax Tips is to provide information that I think is helpful to taxpayers. And really, that is all that I am trying to do. I sure do hope that I am not “failing” in my attempt to accomplish this goal.
If you are a reader of Stacie’s More Tax Tips and you believe that my IRS posts are a “Major FAIL”, I would like to hear back from you. If my readership feels I need to be more specific in my posting of IRS information, then I am happy to do so. Of course, if you think this whole thing is “no big deal” – or my posts are more like a Major WIN, then I would like to hear that as well.
Thanks for reading!
Stacie
Stacie's Tax Stuff 