In exchange for room and board, I am providing my mother with in-home hospice care...?

Question

This amounts to many thousands of dollars per year in expense to her, although I am never paid any actual money - I just basically live with her for free.

Can she deduct those costs as "nursing care"?

Thanks for that Mr Tax,

Some follow-on questions:

Let's say that my mother paid $600 a month for my food. I am "on-call" 24/7 whenever she needs help with medical things - diabetes testing and administering, driving to the doctors, changing bed-clothes, etc; however, it is hard to say how what % of my day I actually spend doing those things.

So the question is, what % of that $600 a month in food can she deduct?

Also, she moved into an $850 two bedroom apartment instead of a $600 one-bedroom to accomodate me. What % of that could she deduct?

Answer 1

If you provide actual nursing care, your share of food costs would be deductible. In addition, if your mother moved into a larger house or apartment so you would have room to live with her, the extra rent or utilities would also be deductible (i.e., if you merely moved into an empty room in her existing residence, no part of her rent or house payments would be deductible as a medical expense).

Also remember that she can only deduct qualifed medical expenses that she actually PAID over and beyond her usual expenses; the value of your services is not deductible.

The below links provide further details from the IRS website. Good luck, and props for helping to take care of your mother! :-)

Answer 2

It really doesn't sound like hospice care, or even nursing care. I'd be very cautious trying to deduct the items you mention, and would see a CPA before trying to do so - that's a certified public accountant (or else see what's called an enrolled agent) - NOT a storefront preparer like H&R Block of Jackson Hewitt. The advice the other responder gave is a somewhat liberal interpretation of what is deductible.

If she is itemizing and has medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of her income, she can deduct mileage for the doctor visits.

Answer 3

First, i'm sorry to your loss, I experienced the comparable ingredient with my spouse 2 years in the past. That patch replace right into a Morphine Patch. It retains them out of discomfort, and we could them pass to sleep, and die peacefully.