Let me tell all of you how my return is working out.
This year, I have the option to claim myself, or have my parents claim me. If I claim myself, I get $900 back on my return, and my parents get $340 back. If my parents claim me, I have to pay $400 and my parents get $3900 back. The agreement I had with my mother was that "If we end up making more from claiming you, we'll pay you the difference." When we ran these numbers today, my mother informed me that she meant the difference to my return. I thought she meant the difference to her return. Basically, because I'm not claiming myself, my parents are getting $3560 more and they are giving me $1300 of that, leaving them with $2260 more than they had before.
My problem with all of this is that my parents DON'T NEED MONEY. My mother clears 6 figures easily. My dad makes about 15% of that. Yes, they have lots of debts, they have helped me a lot in the last year. However, I NEED that help. Furthermore, I'm doing my BEST to live on my own. I'm not making enough money at my current job to fully support myself, so I found another job that starts in May. From the time that job starts until the end of time, I will be able to support myself without periodic help from my parents. I am barely scraping by. My income is barely enough to pay all my bills, not including food, which my parents pay most of--$200 a month.
What I want to propose to my parents is $1950 for each of us. With that money, I could pay my taxes, get a lap-top, and pay off two credit cards. That'll open up $50 a month for me and help me make more money. With a computer, I could do work for Cha Cha while I'm in Yellowstone. My parents can do the same thing for themselves without a tax return.
Even if we do this, my parents will get more than 5 times what they would get without me. I don't think that's unreasonable. What do you think?
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