Someone lives with me and only gets 500 plus 200 of food stamps can I claim them as dependents?

Answer 1

Who pays the bills? Who owns or rents the home?

The first thing you need to determine is: Have you provided over $8,400 of support for this person. Support includes amounts you paid for housing, utilities, food eaten at home, clothing, medical care, etc.

If you or the other person owns the home, only the amounts paid on the mortgage principal and interest count toward support.

Next, if the person is receiving a taxable payment of $500 a month, then the person makes too much money to be a dependent even if you pay over half of the person's support.

But if the person is receiving SSI or SSDI for example, and you do pay more toward the person's support than they do, then you could claim the person as a dependent.

There are more factors to consider than can be listed here, depending mainly on who else lives in the household. You need to consult with a tax preparer in person and go over your situation.

Answer 2

You can claim someone as a dependent if they meet ALL of the following tests:

1. They are not the dependent of another taxpayer.
2. They have not filed a joint return with another taxpayer (though there is a rare exception to this, I won't go into it here).
3. They have lived in your household for the ENTIRE year.
4. You have provided for more than 50% of their support.
5. They have less than $3,400 in gross income in 2007. (Only exclude non-taxable Social Security income in determining gross income for this test.)
6. Your relationship does not violate local law, even if the law is unenforced.

If they receive $500 a month plus $200 in food stamps they probalby will fail the gross income test unless the $500 is from Social Security. Even if it is, they may fail the support test depending upon how the numbers work out.

Answer 3

The IRS has strict rules on who qualifies as a dependent for income tax purposes. Just the fact that you support them is not enough. See www.irs.gov.