In principle, all adults complete their own tax return. However, if your children are currently 26 or under, they may in some cases be included in your tax household. You must then declare all or part of the income of your related children.
Have your children passed the age of 18, and therefore of majority? They are not obliged to fill out their own income tax declaration now. If you wish, and with their agreement, you can continue to count them among your dependent children. In this case, we speak of tax attachment.
Up to what age can you attach them for tax purposes?
An adult child may be attached, regardless of his professional and family situation, as long as he has under 21 on January 1 of the year concerned by the tax return. Watch out for the calendar puzzle! This declaration for 2022 relates to income for 2021. Children born in 2000, 2001 or 2002 can therefore be included in all cases: last year, they thus celebrated their 19th, 20th or 21st birthday. This spring, when you complete your declaration, these children can therefore already be 22 years old if they were born at the start of the year.
Taxes 2022: the deadlines for the tax return
If your child turned 18 in 2021
You have the choice! By default, a child born in the year 2003 is categorized by the tax authorities among your dependents in 2021. Your young adult is therefore likely pre-filled in the Unmarried children under 18 line. It allows you to benefit from the family quotient system.
However, if he wishes, your child can complete his first declaration. In this case, two possibilities. The first, cut the year in half: you declare his income received until he is 18 years old, and your child declares separately his income received after his majority. Second possibility: the child who has reached majority in 2021 declares its own income for the whole year 2021 (be careful, in this case you do not benefit from a share or half share).
If your child continues his studieshe can request the attachment to your tax household as long as he has under 25 on January 1 of the year concerned (January 1, 2021). Students born in 1996 or in subsequent years can therefore be included. They are thus, on the day of the declaration, in the year of their 26th birthday. To request attachment, students must be able to justify the continuation of their studies, for example via a student cardon January 1 or December 31 of the year 2021.
Note: whether or not you live with your parents has no impact on the tax connection. Disabled children, regardless of their age, can also be included. Moreover, if the related children are married or in a PACS, the connection is global: it includes your child, his or her spouse and any children.
Read also: Disabled children, married children, disabled people… Who can be attached to your tax household?
Where to declare the connection?
To request the tax attachment of your adult children, you must enter the number of adult children attached on your income tax return box J (single child) or the box N (child husband or PACS). Boxes located in box D for the paper declaration (frame of attachment in 2021 of adult or married children), step 2 (your family situation) for the online declaration. You must also specify the identity of the attached children.
Namely: the attachment is not renewed automatically. You must therefore request it each year via your income tax return.
Attachment request letter template
Each child must sign a request for attachmenton free paper, on the following model:
I undersign [nom, prnom, adresse, profession ou qualit, date et lieu de naissance] request to be attached to the tax household of [mes parents, ma mre, mon pre]. Date and signature.
Do not attach this letter to your declaration: you only need to keep it so that you can present it to the tax authorities in the event of an audit.
Attachment and separation
When the parents, separated or divorced, are taxed separately, the parent who does not benefit from the connection can deduct alimony from his income. Be careful, however, in the particular case of alternating residence: the tax authorities specify that the income of the related child must be shared between both parents.
Where to declare the income of the attached children?
You must declare all the income received by the attached children by adding them in the boxes 1CJ, 1 DJ, etc., and possibly 1CP and following in the event of unemployment, the heading Your income, salaries, wages (step 3). Please note: unlike your income and that of your eventual spouse, the income of dependent children is not pre-filled!
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Do I have to declare all the income of the related children?
If the related adult child has entered working life (and was therefore 21 years old or younger in 2021), you must declare all of his wages or other income in box 1CJ.
If your attached child is studenton the other hand, part or even all of his compensation maybe exempt. This is the case for a stock Exchange granted by the State or by local authorities on social criteria: the total amount received is exempt, and therefore does not have to be declared!
For the student jobsthe tax authorities provide a exemption thresholdset three times the monthly amount of the minimum wage, i.e. 4690 euros in 2021. For this 2022 declaration, the 2021 salaries from jobs performed in parallel with studies have not been declared if they are less than 4690 euros. Beyond that, the part of the remuneration exceeding this threshold must be entered on the declaration of income for the tax household.
For students who have completed paid internshipsthe bonus received for the year 2021 is exempt within the limit of 18760 euros. This exemption threshold also applies to apprentices with an apprenticeship contract. Conversely, there is no exemption for a professionalization or qualification contract: all income received in this way must therefore be declared.
For adult children: How to file your first tax return?
In addition, if your attached children continue their studies, you can benefit from a tax reductionHight of 183euros per child student. To do this, you must indicate the box 7EF the number of children in higher education (7EG in the case of alternating residence), the heading reductions and tax credits.
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