Tax help about head of household?

Question

I do not earn that much but I take care of all the expenses for my apartment for example Cable internet food.... so on. I live with my mother and she takes care of the rent. She is retired and legally can not work due to a back problem she accuired while working. She has a disability pension. She does not file taxes though. Can I claim her as a dependent. I do claim as head of household

Answer 1

Who else live with you? Unless you have a relative that qualifies you as head of household in your household, you cannot file as head of household.

You would have to pay over half the cost of maintaining the household. Since your mother pays the rent, it might be a stretch to prove that you pay more than your mother.

The dependency of the mother hinges on how much her disability payments are. If her disability payments are more than half of your income, then she pays for over half of her own support and you cannot claim her as a dependent.

But if you earn more than twice her disability payments, and the food and cable comes to more than the rent, then yes you claim your mother and file as head of household.

Answer 2

Qualifying Relative
There are four tests that must be met for a person to be your qualifying relative. The four tests are:

-Not a qualifying child test,

-Member of household or relationship test,

-Gross income test, and

-Support test.

Gross Income Test
To meet this test, a person's gross income for the year must be less than $3,300.

Gross income defined. Gross income is all income in the form of money, property, and services that is not exempt from tax.

Support Test (To Be a Qualifying Relative)
To meet this test, you generally must provide more than half of a person's total support during the calendar year.

How to determine if support test is met.
You figure whether you have provided more than half of a person's total support by comparing the amount you contributed to that person's support with the entire amount of support that person received from all sources. This includes support the person provided from his or her own funds.

You need to figure out if you meet the support test. It appears as if you meet all other tests, and can claim your mother as a dependent if you meet the support test.

for more information:
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p501/ar02.html#d0e2117

Answer 3

You may but you also have to fill out a form to report the benefits she recieves