Personal Exemptions

Time Requirement: 10 minutes

Purpose

Identifying and entering the correct number of exemptions is a critical component of completing the taxpayers' return.

Objectives

• Distinguish between personal and dependency exemptions
• Determine if a taxpayer can be claimed as a dependent on another taxpayer's return

Teaching the Lesson

Refer to the Lesson Plan for helpful instructor notes, visual aids, TaxSlayer® demos, and Internet links. Use the following questions to prompt students to share what they know about determining if a taxpayer can be claimed as a dependent on another taxpayer's return.

Refer students who may want to work independently to Publication 4491, Personal Exemptions.

Key References

This lesson refers to the following publications and forms:

• Form 13614-C, Page 1, Part II
• Pub 4012, Dependents tab
• Pub 17, Chapter 3, Personal Exemptions

All references to materials can be found by clicking Job Aids and Media buttons. There are also links to helpful tools that can be found on the irs.gov public portal. For this lesson, student can link to the following sites for additional help:

• Interactive Tax Assistant to determine personal exemptions for self and spouse

TaxSlayer® Demos and Tutorials

It is recommended to go to the Practice Lab and access the latest TaxSlayer tutorial for this lesson. The TaxSlayer tutorials can be found by going to the Practice Lab and clicking the link for 2012 TaxSlayer IRS training.

Publication 4012, Dependents tab, includes how to enter personal exemptions in TaxSlayer.