<p>Looking for some input from other parents on this one – When do you start having your kids file their own taxes? </p>
<p>I told mine that I would file for them while they were in college, partially because as dependents, some of their info is dependent upon our info (which I don’t want to give to them) and partially because tax filing comes right around mid-terms / spring break / then finals and I didn’t want them not filing or having their grades go down because they focused on taxes and not studying. </p>
<p>Now our oldest is graduating and ordinarily, I’d be happy to send him the files and help walk him through it next year, but leave it on his shoulders. However, he’s headed to law school, with all the pressure and studying that involves. My sister went to law school and worked her tushy off. My husband thinks we should’ve dumped it on them the minute they turned 21. I’m thinking if it takes a burden off them and doesn’t stress me out, why not help?</p>
<p>I know I filed my tax returns all thru law school. It was pre-turbo tax and generally took an hour or less, including finding all the important documents, filling in the form & double-checking my math. I didn’t have much in assets or income, so it was rather straight-forward. On the other hand, I confess, we still have our accountant do the taxes for our kids (ages 21 & 23) because they are lazy and have a few investments. We still figure from year to year whether to have them file their own returns or have them part of ours, to see which works better for the family economic unit. Next year, we expect S will have his own filed, as he will have worked full-time for nearly 6 months of the year.</p>
<p>The first year out of college I helped the kids get their returns done; the second year, I offered to help (and was accepted); the third year, my son used an accountant (ours) and my daughter did it herself, online, using the IRS website, and got her refund five days later.</p>
<p>I started doing my own taxes when I was in college. Of course, I was married at 21, attending night school for MBA and working a full time job in corporate banking. Kids these days have it easy!!</p>
<p>We had our D (college freshman) do her own taxes this year. Took her about 1/2 hour and one call to dad.</p>
<p>I think they should file their own once they’re no longer claimed on the parents’ return as a dependent. It’s a logical break.</p>
<p>With TurboTax and other prep software it shouldn’t take him more than a half hour to file his taxes since they’re likely pretty uncomplicated at this point. Even at law school he’ll have plenty of time to be able to file his own taxes.</p>
<p>Edit - I ball parked the ‘half hour’ before I read the above post from megpmom stating it took her D 30 minutes to do hers. I guess the half hour must be pretty close.</p>
<p>I’ll agree, except I dont’ think most kids need turbo tax (I don’t use it; I use the free fillable forms on the IRS site). It’s pretty cut and dried, unless they’re running their own business or have investments (neither true for mine.) Mine have always done them, with input from me if necessary.</p>
<p>I’ve always done son’s taxes and am doing so this year because:</p>
<p>(1) he’s still able to be claimed as a dependent on our return as a child - didn’t start working until August, full-time student in at least 5 months, under age 24.
(2) he has moving expenses to include.
(3) he has two part-year state returns.
(4) I have tax software. Although it doesn’t include the part-year state forms.
(5) I am comfortable with confusing government forms.</p>
<p>Of course, when I was his age, I’d been working for a year and moved from NYC to Chicago with moving expenses and did it all by hand (OK, I think I had a calculator that could add and subtract).</p>
<p>He’s getting substantial refunds from both Federal and state but doesn’t seem to grasp the principle of why it should be so (i.e. only worked 1/3 of year so withheld at too high a bracket). And he was an Econ minor! Maybe he was just tired…</p>
<p>Next year he can do it himself; I’ll be happy to consult. For a fee ;).</p>
I agree - for the simple returns most students would be filling out, it’s not really needed or they could just do the free turbo tax (or others) available online.</p>
<p>My kids started filing their own taxes when they got their first job at 15-16. They use Taxact or Taxhawk, because both do free filing for both their federal and state returns. It never takes either one of them more than about 20 minutes to do their taxes. But then again, the most they ever have is a couple of W-2’s. No investment income, etc.</p>
<p>My mom has always done the families taxes. My grandparents bring theirs over, her best friend brings hers over, etc. Usually I gather all my information and drop it off for her but last year I stuck around and she showed me how she does everything and this year I filed mine by myself. My taxes aren’t horribly complicated but I do itemize as I own a house and I have student loans. I do my federal on freetaxusa I believe and it’s very easy and takes you through everything. It reminds you to put in your donations, bank interest earnings, etc and takes you through everything step by step. They are free for federal but charge you for state filing so I just do my state on our state website for free and the local I mail in.</p>
<p>My mom does mine. Well, she takes mine to the accountant the same time she takes hers. I think she still takes a couple of my sisters’ as well. We talked about them the other day. One thing she has to find out is what needs to happen because I spent the summer working in another state and they didn’t withold anything… I normally don’t get much back anyway…</p>
<p>Oh no! I hadn’t even thought of this! Fortunately, Happykid didn’t make enough money last year to file a tax return, but I expect it will be a nightmare when she does as she’s on the dyscalculic side. I expect I’ll just do them for her until she finds a nice accountant to marry (am I still allowed to write things like that in the 21st century?) or learns to use a turbotax equivalent.</p>
<p>For the oldest he started doing his own after college graduation. Pretty simple taxes the first 2 years, but last year may present problems for him since he quit his job and took several short-term consulting jobs while looking for a job he really wanted. All ended well on the job front (he’s very happy), but he may have to call dad with tax questions.
Soon-to-be-grad is doing a master’s next year, so I guess we’ll do his until he’s through.</p>
<p>D (sophomore) and I have been spending some quality time this week doing her taxes together, as we did last year. I wanted her to understand from the beginning that this annual rite goes along with making money, and my philosophy is: her income, her taxes, her filing. I do it the old-fashioned way, with a pencil, so that’s what she’s learning. Anyway, I don’t see the point in TurboTax for Form 1040EZ; it takes 2 minutes.</p>
<p>Several of you have mentioned that you do your child’s taxes because you still claim them as a dependent. I’m not clear on this logic – would someone explain?</p>
<p>Mine have been doing theirs for awhile – I just transitioned, first I would do the taxes for them but have them look over the return, then I told them it was their job and pointed them to online resources, but was available to give help. I did do my daughter’s taxes for her when she was studying abroad – it just seemed like too much of a hassle to have her trying to do it from overseas, and I think she only had work study income to report that year so it was pretty easy. </p>
<p>Usually I start to get calls from one or the other with tax questions around the beginning of April.</p>
<p>Not sure what others’ logic is, but we used an investment account to save for college (pre-529 days). Because their interest & dividend income is over a certain amount, and they are still a dependent, they get slammed with the “kiddie tax” – meant to keep high earning Hollywood & trust-fund kids from paying no tax, it bases the kid’s tax on the parents income (that’s an extremely short explanation for a very convoluted system). To complete the kid’s tax forms, you need to have done the parent’s return first, and some of the parent’s numbers are used to calculate the kid’s taxes. I don’t want to give my kids that much detail into our finances, so as long as they’re dependents, I’m going to do their taxes. When they’re independent, they can do their own.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for their response! I think we’re going to stick with Plan A – I’ll do the taxes until they graduate, then they take them over, regardless of whether they go out into the big wide world, or into grad school.</p>
<p>Back in the Dark Ages, when we all did our taxes on stone tablets and papyrus, all we had was a checking acct, a savings acct and a W-2. As our finances got more complex, we learned each layer as we went along. Like a lot of parents, we’ve tried to teach our kids a bit about finances, and as a result, they’re starting on Step 2, with the additional layer of interest & dividends from investments. I think I was overly worried about it – it’s just one more set of forms to dig out and input into TaxCut. They’ll be fine, even if it kills a weekend during law school and requires a call or two home for advice. </p>
<p>Sure, I can provide an example. My D is in graduate school. For 2010 she was under 24 years old, a student, and we paid >half her support. She earned >$3,650. We claimed a $2000 Lifetime Learning Credit for her tuition payments. This year she’ll turn 24, which means that if she earns $3,651, the credit will be lost. </p>
<p>It is completely unreasonable to expect a 23 year old to follow tax laws closely enough to know that an additional $1 of income might mean an extra $2,000 of federal tax to the persons providing the bulk of her support.</p>