Some background: I'm 21 and just got married in July of last year. Before the wedding, I finished my sophomore year at a university (August 2015-May 2016), which my parents helped me pay for. I contributed $300 a month to my college expenses, have a $10,000 loan in my name which I am paying off currently, and they covered the rest. I also lived with them from May 2016 through July 2016. During my stay with them I did not pay for groceries or pay rent, but I did have a job and pay for my own gas. They also contributed significantly to our wedding budget. Since I got married, my husband and I have moved to a different state, are living in a house owned by my parents but pay them rent on it (~$1000 per month), and pay my parents $100 a month for a car they bought me while I was in college (they transferred the title to us and we pay insurance on it). We pay all our own expenses save for cell phone bills (both still on our parents plans). Also, my mom is a former tax professional who does my family's taxes and did my taxes up until this year.
The situation: My husband has been pretty financially independent from his parents since he turned 18 and does his own taxes every year. His parents haven't claimed him as a dependent since he moved out and went to college. When we got married, we discussed and agreed to filing our taxes jointly as a married couple since it was assumed that I wouldn't be claimed as a dependent. This seemed fine up until a few days ago when my mom called me and informed me that they would be claiming me as a dependent since they had been paying for some of my expenses for more than 6 months of last year. This totally threw off our calculations for our tax returns and will reduce what we would have gotten back otherwise. My husband told me had he known they were going to claim me, we would've filed separately.
The question(s): Are they within their rights to claim me as a dependent? Would it have been wiser to file separately instead of as a joint married couple because of their claim?
I am sadly not the most financially literate person and have never filed my taxes on my own before, so any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Submitted January 22, 2017 at 12:20PM by CodeNameChandler http://ift.tt/2j1zML0
