Can a 40+ year old, disabled son be claimed as a tax deduction?

Maybe some of you Tax-wise people can tell me about this and if it can be done.

I know an elderly lady who had had to move in her disabled adult son to a section of her home because disability does not give him enough money to be able to live in his own home and do small things like buy food, pay power or cable and phone. He makes around 800 a month and his cost of living cut to the bare bones comes to $950. So, she asked him to move back home in a partial apartment attached to the house.

Now, he is in his 40s and she is in her 70s. Can she claim him as a dependent on her taxes? He pays her $100 a month rent and 50% of the power and cable. He mainly stays alone in his little apartment, but drives her around. His disability is Depression and he is under therapy but is on a medication program from the clinic because he cannot afford the $130 a month his prescriptions cost as well as the small charge he pays at the therapist. His apartment is separated from the house by two doors, so he rarely goes in the main part, except to use the bathroom there.

She is assisting him by getting him food and helping him out by paying for some things he cannot afford, so, in a way, she is supporting him. She has even bought some of his medication when his free stuff was tangled in red tape and was held up foe several days. If he goes more than 24 hours without it, he starts going into withdrawal and from what I understand, that is a real unpleasant process. Plus, one of his medications is to smooth out his temper, which has gotten surprisingly short and nasty since he has been ill. So, technically, she is assisting in his support.

Can he be claimed as a dependent?

I was wondering because I watched a court TV program where one girl claimed a friend as a dependent because she was living with and supported by her. I think that was illegal, but with a blood relative, I think it is different.

Any ideas? I’ll follow up your opinions later by seeking out a consultant and confirming things, but I don’t want to spend the money if it cannot be done.

http://www.irs.gov

Download Pub 17 - it has general info and a section on deductions.

They probably also have a separate download relating to deductions and dependents.

Call them - the number will be on that site - they are just sitting there waiting to answer your questions. Might as well get the info from the source.

And don’t worry about the 75% accuracy rate - that’s only during the tax season - only the pros are working now - you won’t get any of the people they hire in November, train in December and put to work from January thru April.

Go to http://www.irs.gov and download Publication 501. This will give you all of the info needed to determine if this woman can deduct her son. It also has tables to fill out that will help her determine this. http://ftp.fedworld.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

deb

<<I was wondering because I watched a court TV program where one girl claimed a friend as a dependent because she was living with and supported by her. I think that was illegal, but with a blood relative, I think it is different. >>

It’d be illegal if she claimed her as a child (like for Earned Income Credit, etc.) but I don’t see why her friend that she fully supports isn’t a dependent.

Corr

Well, I’m confused.

Pub. 501, including the tables, almost seems to work, but it is not for a mentally disabled person, who is not making an income independent of the government and who is a child of the house owner. They only go up to age 24, student or physically disabled working in a sponsored workshop, with an income below 3,000 a year.

$3000 a year? Now I know why so many disabled are living on the street in some areas!

I went through the Disability test, using what I know of him, which is everything, and he failed at the last question, which was income. The government pays him $800 a month, equaling $9600 a year. That means he could rent a hovel, run a couple of lights, have no phone, cable or car, no air conditioning nor heat, battle the bugs and buy some food, but very little medication. We have a few places around here that can be rented at under $300 a month but you would not want to and the crime in those areas is high.

The income standard on the test is roughly $2800 a year.

So, I still don’t know for sure. reading government forms and documents gives me a headache, but, HEY! My never used, built in Adobe Reader works!! Cool!

This is true - for several years (last time in 1999) I claimed as a dependent a non-relative in his forties who lived with me - no disability involved. The classic dependent is a natural or adopted child under 18, but you can claim others who are not even related to you if they meet a specific set of criteria, which are doubtlessly spelled out in one of the publications linked to. As I recall, the criteria boiled down to:

  • Person lived in your home for more than six months of the tax year

  • You provided more than 75% of that person’s financial support, be it in the form of rent, groceries, cash, etc (don’t recall if that was the actual percentage, but something like that)

  • Person did not have to file their own tax return because they did not have sufficient earnings and so did not claim themselves as a dependent

  • Person could not be claimed as a dependent on anyone else’s tax return

This is just a rough idea based on what I remember from last time I used it (I don’t really want to go pull my tax files to look it up) - refer to the official publications for the current and accurate specifics, of course. But it is a perfectly legal and legitimate deduction as long as the individual being claimed meets all of the critera. I didn’t claim this person for a couple years because I mistakenly thought dependents had to be legal relatives. It’s worth using this deduction if it applies in your case.