Need a ballpark guess for a young friend, didn't have the time to get accurate response. College student, single, no deductions. Made around $10500, federal tax withheld was 680. How much should she get back ballpark?

Need a ballpark guess for a young friend, didn't have the time to get accurate response. College student, single, no deductions. Made around $10500, federal tax withheld was 680. How much should she get back ballpark?

 

Can she claim herself as an exemption? If so, that is around $ 4,000 and the standard deduction for single is usually around 5 or 6 thousand. In that case, she would likely get all or a good chunk of it back.

If she is a college student she gets every dime of the federal and state income taxes back.

Do her parents claim her on their taxes?

Do her parents claim her on their taxes?

 

This is an important point. My daughter in college, made a little roughly $11k last year, had about $700 withheld in Federal Tax, and got very little of it back in a refund, roughly $100. That was mostly because I claimed her on my taxes and she couldn't then claim herself.

Need a ballpark guess for a young friend, didn't have the time to get accurate response. College student, single, no deductions. Made around $10500, federal tax withheld was 680. How much should she get back ballpark?

 

For 2017, the standard deduction for a single person is $6,350. The tax rate is 10% on "taxable income" up to $9,325. So, it looks like there would be about $4,150 in taxable income, resulting in a federal tax of $415. She should get back about $265. The personal exemption is $4,050 but I don't believe your friend can use this if her parents claim her as a dependent on their return......which they probably do. There may be other provisions in the tax code which might further her reduce her taxes. I don't know.

For 2017, the standard deduction for a single person is $6,350. The tax rate is 10% on "taxable income" up to $9,325. So, it looks like there would be about $4,150 in taxable income, resulting in a federal tax of $415. She should get back about $265. The personal exemption is $4,050 but I don't believe your friend can use this if her parents claim her as a dependent on their return......which they probably do. There may be other provisions in the tax code which might further her reduce her taxes. I don't know.

 

Agree. Only other thing I can think of off the top of my head is if she has school loans she's already paying on.

It's stepdaughter friend and she said her parents claim her but she was wanting to know what she would get. I think they just give her some money.

I had clients that would make their children whole under those circumstances. They still came out ahead. In this case they would give the student the difference between the withholding and what the refund ends up.

I'm going to be in the same boat this year. I have an 18 year old daughter who started working full time in the middle of September. Made about $11k. I am going to claim her as deduction.

 

I like your idea @75center to make her whole by giving her the difference between me claiming her and her claiming herself.

We always claimed the personal exemption on our 4 kids. No making whole. The heck with them.

I had clients that would make their children whole under those circumstances. They still came out ahead. In this case they would give the student the difference between the withholding and what the refund ends up.

 

Great lesson for a kid about taxes.

You don't have to pay, someone else will.

Great lesson for a kid about taxes.

You don't have to pay, someone else will.

 

If THAT'S all you got out of that, no sense in us wasting each other's time.

My accountant ran it both ways last year. This year the oldest will be on his own!

The common scenario is when a college student lives away from home most, if not all the year. Has a job and borrows to pay for college. In reality that student is paying for more than half his/her own care. The student has several hundred dollars in withholding that they would get all back if they file, keeping their own exemption and deductions. However, that exemption might be worth $1300-$1400 if the parents claim them as a dependent. So the parent keeps the exemption, saves $1400 and gives the student the $400-$500 they lost by not claiming it themselves. Student is whole and the parent saves $900-$1000 on their taxes. It's a win for parent and student.