My parents live with me in NJ and they have been living with me since I purchased the house 3 years ago. I am on SSDI and receive alimony/child support. They in turn they receive $2100 in SS. My mother and I are on the deed to the house and she is on the mortgage by herself. The reason she is on the mortgage without me is because I couldn't be on the mortgage because of my bad credit. But I do make all the mortgage payments plus pay all of the other major bills. Their money pays all of their personal bills. They do help me with some of my bills, but small ones: cable, newspaper, garbage collection. I have never tried to claim them before and the only reason that I'm inquiring now is because someone brought it up. So can I claim my parents as dependents on my taxes?
2007-11-30 01:47:29 · 7 answers · asked by cmjn22 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Taxes ➔ United States
If the $2100 in social security is their only income, you might be able to claim them but very possibly not. Since you co-own the house with your mother, the house wouldn't be considered as support provided by you, so it would depend on what the other living costs are and who pays how much of them.
Child support isn't taxable to you. You don't say how much alimony you are getting per year. If it's under $8750, you wouldn't have taxable income anyway, so claIming them wouldn't give you any tax benefit. If the alimony is more than that, you'd have some tax liability so claiming at least one of them, maybe both, could help you on your taxes.
I know I haven't really answered your question. This one will be a close call, and someone would have to see all of your financial numbers to be able to tell for sure - the amount of your alimony, and what household bills there are, their personal expenses, and who pays what.
2007-11-30 02:04:18 · answer #1 · answered by Judy 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
If the only money your parents had to spend was Social Security of $2,100 a month, then you could claim your parents as long as you provided more than $2,100 a month support to them. Figure the amount of support using Worksheet 3-1 in Pub 17 (page 34):
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf
If you have a child living in the house as well, then the operating costs of the house would have to be divided accordingly, as explained in the worksheet.
2007-11-30 22:13:34 · answer #2 · answered by ninasgramma 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Complex question. You would have to be providing at least one half of their support. Consult a qualified tax advisor to go over all of the details for a solid answer. Since she is on the mortgage by herself, probably not. Again, ask a tax advisor.
2007-11-30 09:58:17 · answer #3 · answered by Phurface 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes if you can claim that you provide more than 1/2 their support. Of course this means that they would not be able to claim themselves on their taxes.
2007-11-30 09:52:29 · answer #4 · answered by countryguyhfc 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you provide more than half of their support, then you may be able to claim them as dependents. They would also have to have less than $3,300 per year (each) in gross taxable income.
There are worksheets in the publication linked below that can help you figure out if you provide more than half of the support. You'll have to figure it out separately for each of your parents.
2007-11-30 10:08:13 · answer #5 · answered by just_the_facts_ma'am 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you provide more then 1/2 of their support you can claim them as dependents. However, they will not be able to claim themselves as dependents on their income taxes. The best thing to do is to fill out one tax form with them and one tax form with out them and them to fill out one and see which one works best for all of you.
2007-11-30 09:57:32 · answer #6 · answered by redhotboxsoxfan 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
yes
2007-11-30 09:56:38 · answer #7 · answered by Psychologist In The House 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋