My 17 teen year old daughter earned a little over 2K at the local Subway. In order to get her withholding money back from the IRS, which tax form is the easiest for her to file?
She is claimed as a dependent on my form and won’t be claiming herself.
Thanks!
Our tax guy told us to use the 1040EZ for our 17 yo son.
Any will work (1040/1040A/1040EZ) but EZ is probably sufficient unless she has other stuff you didn’t mention. She’ll have to do the back side, too.
Another vote for the 1040EZ. Her income and tax liabilities are going to be pretty simple, so it’s unlikely she will need anything more.
I filed 1040EZ from the ages of 16 to 25.
hell, I make an engineer’s salary and I still use the 1040EZ.
Anyone under age 65 who has a relatively trivial tax return can use Form 1040EZ. Folks over 65 can’t claim the increased standard deduction on Form 1040EZ.
Here is a suggestion if you are in a financial position to do so. And I realize that not everyone would be in such a financial position. Open a Roth IRA account for your daughter. Years when she is paying zero tax are the perfect time to do so. You can put up to the amount in Box 1 of her W-2 (the before-tax amount) into her Roth IRA. Again, if you have the money, you can gift her the sum to put into her Roth IRA and let her keep her salary. The money in her Roth IRA will grow tax-free forever if she leaves the interest there until she reaches age 59 1/2. She can even withdraw the original contribution at any time tax-free. (Interest withdrawn prior to reaching 59 1/2 may be taxable.) It’s a great start for her future. You can make a 2011 Roth IRA contribution until 4/18/2012. You can make it even if she has already filed her tax return.
Do you live in a state with no income tax? Because I make “an engineer’s salary” and the amount of state income tax I pay – which is not really under my control – is enough to make it worth my while to itemize deductions. So I have to use the big 1040.
In Pennsylvania (3.07%) you’d have to earn close to $190,000 for your state taxes alone to make it worth your while to itemize for a single filer. Not exactly an engineer’s salary.
If you’re healthy, your medical insurance is paid by your employer, and you don’t own your home, you may easily find yourself with extremely few other deductions.
FWIW, here’s the official answer.
Oh. I live in California, where the state income tax is over 9%.
Correction: I said April 18 in this post.
I should have said April 17th. Sorry.