Form 8814 - Parents' Election to Report Child's Interest and Dividends

Purpose of Form

Use this form if you elect to report your child's income on your return. If you do, your child will not have to file a return. You can make this election if your child meets all of the following conditions:

-There was no Federal income tax withheld from the childs income.

-The child was under age 19 (or under age 24 if a full-time student) at the end of the year. You cannot make this election for such a child unless the child was a full-time student.

-The childs only income was from interest and dividends, including capital gain distributions and Alaska Permanent Fund dividends.

-The childs gross income was less than $11,000.

-The child is required to file a return.

-The child does not file a joint return for the year.

-There were no estimated tax payments made

-You must also qualify. See Parents Who Qualify To Make the Election below.

Parents Who Qualify To Make the Election

You qualify to make this election if you file Form 1040 or Form 1040NR and any of the following apply:

-You are filing a joint return with the childs other parent.

-You and the childs other parent were married to each other but file separate returns and you had the higher taxable income.

-You were unmarried, treated as unmarried for Federal income tax purposes, or separated from the childs other parent by a divorce or separate maintenance decree. You must have had custody of your child for most of the year (you were the custodial parent). If you were the custodial parent and you remarried, you may make the election on a joint return with your new spouse. But if you and your new spouse do not file a joint return, you qualify to make the election only if you had higher taxable income than your new spouse.

Note: If you and the childs other parent were not married but lived together during the year with the child, you qualify to make the election only if you are the parent with the higher taxable income.

Student Defined: A student is a child who during any part of 5 calendar months of the year was enrolled as a full-time student at a school, or took a full-time, on-farm training course given by a school or a state, county, or local government agency. A school includes a technical, trade or mechanical school. It does not include an on-the-job training course, correspondence school, or school offering courses only through the Internet.

For more information please see IRS Form 8814.