My mother is unable to work full time and she's having financial problems. I want to help her out but the only way I can do that is if my brother and I both claim her as a dependent. If we combine the extra money we receive on our pay checks it should be able to help her out. However I need to know if that is even legal. Or can only one person claim her as a dependent?
2007-12-06 17:15:54 · 4 answers · asked by Ducky Jackal 3 in Business & Finance ➔ Taxes ➔ United States
nope.. cause if it catch up were they find out about it one of you guys are going to have to pay the irs back! 2 ppl cant claim 1 person! that is indeed illegal!!!!!!!!
2007-12-06 17:24:23 · answer #1 · answered by Canky Kisses 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Okay, on your W-4 at work, you added an extra "allowance" (which is *not* the same thing as claiming an extra dependent). This decreased your withholding and increased your take home pay. Your brother did the same.
The downside of this is that by having less money withheld, each of you risks owing money at tax time.
At tax time, you are and your brother will have to figure out your mother's total support (see IRS publication 501) and the percentage she provided for herself and the percentages you and your brother supplied.
*IF* your mother made less than $3400 AND you and your brother provided more than half of her total support, then the ONE of the two of you can claim her as a dependent on ONE tax return. (You'd have to attach the multiple support form to show that between the two of you you met the support test). If so, that individual can help pay the other's tax bill and you may end up reversing this next year.
The stumbling block will be your mom's income. It's very, very easy to make more than $3400. It's also very easy for her to have supported herself. If this is the case, you MUST reduce her expenses because you can't go into continued debt to support her.
2007-12-06 18:09:03 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Only one person can claim someone on their return, so no you can't both claim her. But if together you provide over 50% of her support, then one of you might be able to - if she provides over 50% of her own support, then neither of you can. If her gross income is over $3400 for the year, not counting non-taxable income like social security, neither of you can claim her.
If she doesn't provide over 50% of her own support, you might be able to do what's called a multiple support agreement among anyone who provides over 10% of her total support - what this does is that it allows one of those people to claim her as a dependent even though that person didn't provide over half of her support which would normally be a requirement for claiming her. You'd still have to meet all of the other requirements to claim her other than the one to provide 50% of her total support, so if her gross income is over $3400 for the year, you can't claim her in any case.
2007-12-07 01:18:19 · answer #3 · answered by Judy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you can claim whatever you want on your w-4's as far as how much money they take out for taxes on each paycheck. The problem comes when you go to file taxes and only one of you can claim her...if you underpaid taxes you will have to pay them more instead of getting a refund.
2007-12-06 18:06:21 · answer #4 · answered by punished_princess 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋