Dependent

Hi Terry,
My question is my mother is 96 years of age and lives with my husband and I. We own our home. I do not charge her anything to live with us. She receives her pension check which is very small and her social security check. She does have a apartment building. IT is under her name and in the event she passes the apartment building will go to my children. My son stays at the apartment building about three times a week. Can i place her as a dependent on my Income Tax. Please advise Thank You

Terry Says:  This is an interesting question.  Declaring someone as a dependent is based completely on income, not on assets!  Here is a link to the Intuit Turbo Tax page that describes the income requirements to claim an elderly parent as a dependent.   Basically, you must have contributed more than half their support during the year and your parent must not have earned or received more than the exemption amount for the tax year.  Unfortunately, the income limit is only $4,000!    So if you consider the value of room and board to be more than the combined value of her pension and Social Security checks — and it is below the current exemption amount, it would appear she qualifies, despite her asset ownership.  But I don’t consider myself an official tax expert, and you might want to seek advice from a CPA.