I take care of my mom financially. She doesn’t live with me, but I think I can claim her as a dependent. She has government-subsidized housing and no other help. She doesn’t pay rent or utilities, but I spend around $400 to $600 a month on groceries, her cell phone, and toiletries.
I read the IRS guidelines, and it says you need to pay 50% of the costs of ‘keeping up a house.’
Any more details would help!
You can use this IRS tool to help figure out the right filing status:
To claim her as a dependent, you need to pay half of her total support. Her support includes the fair rental value of the government housing she stays in. If that’s more than what you pay each month, you won’t be able to claim her as a qualifying relative, and she won’t help you qualify for Head of Household status.
@Torrance
Let’s say the fair rental value of her apartment is $1000. That’s accurate. Similar apartments rent for less than hers.
I’m giving her $550 to $600 per month. Wouldn’t that work? It’s more than half of the rent.
Can you show me where the IRS says this specifically? The wording seems to say ‘keeping up a house’ and doesn’t necessarily mean the full cost of housing.
Any clarification would be great.
@Sai
You don’t need to cover the full cost of maintaining her household, but you do need to pay more than half of just her household expenses (not all her living costs).
What you include: Rent, mortgage interest, real estate taxes, insurance on the home, repairs, utilities, and food eaten at home.
What you don’t include: Clothing, education, medical costs, vacations, life insurance, or transportation. Plus, you can’t count your own services or those of anyone in your household.
Check out this IRS link: IRS Guidelines
Since she rents and doesn’t have to worry about maintenance, insurance, or taxes, the government covers her rent. So, you’d need to pay that amount plus $1 to cover her utilities and groceries to claim HoH.
@Sai
The issue isn’t the ‘cost of keeping up a house.’ The problem is that you can’t claim her as a dependent if you aren’t providing more than half of her total support. The $1000 rent gets added to her total support, and $600 is less than half of $1600.
Here’s a link on who counts as a qualifying person for Head of Household: IRS - Head of Household
For a parent to be a qualifying relative, you need to meet four tests. You’ve got the first three (not a qualifying child, relationship test, and gross income test), but the support test isn’t met.
You need to provide more than half of their total support during the year. Check out this IRS worksheet to figure out whether you qualify: IRS Support Worksheet
@Torrance
Got it.
So, do I count her government-subsidized apartment as part of her living expenses? I thought I should only count what she’s actually paying.
There’s an example on the IRS site about a parent who gets $2400 in Social Security benefits and $300 in interest. They paid $2000 for lodging and $400 for recreation. Even though the parent received a total of $2700, they only spent $2400 for their support.
My mom doesn’t pay rent at all. She doesn’t get any checks or money.
For this, I would fill out the lodging section as $0, right? Since the apartment is provided by the government?
I’m confused about whether I should count the value of her apartment.
@Sai
You definitely need to count the value of the government-provided housing as part of her support.
You’re misinterpreting the fair rental value section. The ‘if the person you’re supporting owns the home’ part only applies if you enter something in line 6b. If they don’t own the home, you don’t have to worry about that.
Also, line 23 makes it clear that you need to include anything provided by state or welfare programs when figuring out the support someone gets. The IRS says it outright: ‘Benefits provided by the state to a needy person are generally considered support provided by the state.’ IRS Source
@Torrance
Okay, now it makes sense.
Line 23 really clears things up. Thanks for the help.
Your parent doesn’t have to live with you for Head of Household. If no one else is supporting them, then you’re covering more than half of their housing costs, so that should count. I doubt the IRS is going to spend much time checking this kind of situation anyway.
@Yan
The value of the government housing is definitely considered support provided by someone other than you.