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Show Income Tax Fax By Peter James Wikel Public Accountant Your child can earn over $600 in 1954, and you can still claim the dependency deduction for him provided he is under 19 years old; or if he is over 19 years old, he was also a full-time student for at least five months of 1954 at an educational institution which normally maintains a regular faculty fac-ulty and curriculum and normally normal-ly has a regularly organized body of students in attendance at the place where its educational activities acti-vities are carried on; or if he was pursuing a full-time course of institutional in-stitutional on-farm training under the supervision of an accredited agent of an educational institution or of a State or political subdivision subdi-vision of a State, and you provided pro-vided over one-half of the cost of his support. In determining the total cost of support of the student to see if you have paid over one-half, you are not required to include any amounts received by the student as scholarship for study at an educational ed-ucational institution. This applies only to your children. That is, your son, daughter, step-son or step-daughter. All other dependents depend-ents must have earnings of less than $600 to qualify as your dependents. de-pendents. Your children, if qualified as above, can earn any amount. They may be required to file a tax return, if they earn over $600, and be required to pay income tax, and they may claim their personal exemption of $600 on their own tax return. They may, if they earn under $600, file an income tax return and claim their own personal exemption of $600 in order to secure the refund to them of any income tax that they : may have been withheld from I their paychecks. This will not in j any way prevent you from also . claiming their $600 dependency deduction on your income tax return, re-turn, provided they meet the requirement re-quirement above, j If, however, your child is mar-ried mar-ried and files a joint return with his or her spouse, then you can not claim the dependency deduction.. |