Guest guest Posted March 25, 2009 Report Share Posted March 25, 2009 For anyone who has an AS young adult...if that young adult is dependent upon the family for everything except spending money, but the young adult has not applied for SSI in the hope that one day he will become independent, has anyone here claimed that young adult (age 21 or over) as a dependent on their income taxes? I know there is an earnings limit of $3500 ( my son has earned more than that this year working 20 hours/week)...but his total earned income would put him at the poverty level if he is not considered a dependent...any answers? Thanks...blessings on your day, Gail Great Deals on Dell 15" Laptops - Starting at $479 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 26, 2009 Report Share Posted March 26, 2009 My understanding for his age (21) is that unless he is a full-time college student and in school for at least 6 months of that year, you can't claim him as a dependent. If you've got guardianship over him (court papers), that is different. > > For anyone who has an AS young adult...if that young adult is dependent upon the family for everything except spending money, but the young adult has not applied for SSI in the hope that one day?he will become independent, has anyone here claimed that young adult (age 21 or over) as a dependent on their income taxes?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 I hope that this answer your question if not let me know. Please take your time and read all of it I know it is a lot of information but there are so many loopholes involved You will find this information on the Pub 501 I just give you the Sections you had questions on There is a worksheet for determining support if you want it let me know Thanks, Sonya Tax Specialist II H & R Block The Will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.Qualifying Child There are five tests that must be met for a child to be your qualifying child. The five tests are: Relationship, Age, Residency, Support, and Special test for qualifying child of more than one person. These tests are explained next. Relationship Test To meet this test, a child must be: Your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, or a descendant (for example, your grandchild) of any of them, or Your brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant (for example, your niece or nephew) of any of them. Adopted child. An adopted child is always treated as your own child. The term “adopted child†includes a child who was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption. child. A foster child is an individual who is placed with you by an authorized placement agency or by judgment, decree, or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction. Age Test To meet this test, a child must be: Under age 19 at the end of the year, A full-time student under age 24 at the end of the year, or Permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year, regardless of age. Example. Your son turned 19 on December 10. Unless he was permanently and totally disabled or a full-time student, he does not meet the age test because, at the end of the year, he was not under age 19. Full-time student. A full-time student is a student who is enrolled for the number of hours or courses the school considers to be full-time attendance. Student defined. To qualify as a student, your child must be, during some part of each of any 5 calendar months of the year: A full-time student at a school that has a regular teaching staff, course of study, and a regularly enrolled student body at the school, or A student taking a full-time, on-farm training course given by a school described in (1), or by a state, county, or local government agency. The 5 calendar months do not have to be consecutive. Special rules may apply for people who had to relocate because of the Midwestern storms, tornadoes, or flooding. For details, see Publication 4492-B.School defined. A school can be an elementary school, junior and senior high school, college, university, or technical, trade, or mechanical school. However, an on-the-job training course, correspondence school, or school offering courses only through the Internet does not count as a school. Vocational high school students. Students who work on “co-op†jobs in private industry as a part of a school's regular course of classroom and practical training are considered full-time students. Permanently and totally disabled. Your child is permanently and totally disabled if both of the following apply. He or she cannot engage in any substantial gainful activity because of a physical or mental condition. A doctor determines the condition has lasted or can be expected to last continuously for at least a year or can lead to death. Residency Test To meet this test, your child must have lived with you for more than half of the year. There are exceptions for temporary absences, children who were born or died during the year, kidnapped children, and children of divorced or separated parents. Temporary absences. Your child is considered to have lived with you during periods of time when one of you, or both, are temporarily absent due to special circumstances such as: Illness, Education, Business, Vacation, or Military service. Support Test (To Be a Qualifying Child) To meet this test, the child cannot have provided more than half of his or her own support for the year. This test is different from the support test to be a qualifying relative, which is described later. However, to see what is or is not support, see Support Test (To Be a Qualifying Relative) , later. If you are not sure whether a child provided more than half of his or her own support, you may find Worksheet 1 helpful. Scholarships. A scholarship received by a child who is a full-time student is not taken into account in determining whether the child provided more than half of his or her own support.Qualifying Relative There are four tests that must be met for a person to be your qualifying relative. The four tests are: Not a qualifying child test, Member of household or relationship test, Gross income test, and Support test. Age. Unlike a qualifying child, a qualifying relative can be any age. There is no age test for a qualifying relative.Not a Qualifying Child Test A child is not your qualifying relative if the child is your qualifying child or the qualifying child of any other taxpayer. Example 1. Your 22-year-old daughter, who is a full-time student, lives with you and meets all the tests to be your qualifying child. She is not your qualifying relative. Example 2. Your 2-year-old son lives with your parents and meets all the tests to be their qualifying child. He is not your qualifying relative. Example 3. Your son lives with you but is not your qualifying child because he is 30 years old and does not meet the age test. He may be your qualifying relative if the gross income test and the support test are met. Example 4. Your 13-year-old grandson lived with his mother for 3 months, with his uncle for 4 months, and with you for 5 months during the year. He is not your qualifying child because he does not meet the residency test. He may be your qualifying relative if the gross income test and the support test are met. Member of Household or Relationship Test To meet this test, a person must either: Live with you all year as a member of your household, or Be related to you in one of the ways listed under Relatives who do not have to live with you. If at any time during the year the person was your spouse, that person cannot be your qualifying relative. However, see Personal Exemptions, earlier. Relatives who do not have to live with you. A person related to you in any of the following ways does not have to live with you all year as a member of your household to meet this test. Your child, stepchild, foster child, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your grandchild). (A legally adopted child is considered your child.) Your brother, sister, half brother, half sister, stepbrother, or stepsister. Your father, mother, grandparent, or other direct ancestor, but not foster parent. Your stepfather or stepmother. A son or daughter of your brother or sister. A brother or sister of your father or mother. Your son-in-law, daughter-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law. Any of these relationships that were established by marriage are not ended by death or divorce. Example. You and your wife began supporting your wife's father, a widower, in 2002. Your wife died in 2007. In spite of your wife's death, your father-in-law continues to meet this test, even if he does not live with you. You can claim him as a dependent if all other tests are met, including the gross income test and support test. child. A foster child is an individual who is placed with you by an authorized placement agency or by judgment, decree, or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction. Joint return. If you file a joint return, the person can be related to either you or your spouse. Also, the person does not need to be related to the spouse who provides support. For example, your spouse's uncle who receives more than half of his support from you may be your qualifying relative, even though he does not live with you. However, if you and your spouse file separate returns, your spouse's uncle can be your qualifying relative only if he lives with you all year as a member of your household. Temporary absences. A person is considered to live with you as a member of your household during periods of time when one of you, or both, are temporarily absent due to special circumstances such as: Illness, Education, Business, Vacation, or Military service. If the person is placed in a nursing home for an indefinite period of time to receive constant medical care, the absence may be considered temporary. Death or birth. A person who died during the year, but lived with you as a member of your household until death, will meet this test. The same is true for a child who was born during the year and lived with you as a member of your household for the rest of the year. The test is also met if a child lived with you as a member of your household except for any required hospital stay following birth. If your dependent died during the year and you otherwise qualified to claim an exemption for the dependent, you can still claim the exemption. Example. Your dependent mother died on January 15. She met the tests to be your qualifying relative. The other tests to claim an exemption for a dependent were also met. You can claim an exemption for her on your return. Local law violated. A person does not meet this test if at any time during the year the relationship between you and that person violates local law. Example. Your girlfriend lived with you as a member of your household all year. However, your relationship with her violated the laws of the state where you live, because she was married to someone else. Therefore, she does not meet this test and you cannot claim her as a dependent. Adopted child. An adopted child is always treated as your own child. The term “adopted child†includes a child who was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption. Cousin. Your cousin meets this test only if he or she lives with you all year as a member of your household. A cousin is a descendant of a brother or sister of your father or mother. Gross Income Test To meet this test, a person's gross income for the year must be less than $3,500. Gross income defined. Gross income is all income in the form of money, property, and services that is not exempt from tax. In a manufacturing, merchandising, or mining business, gross income is the total net sales minus the cost of goods sold, plus any miscellaneous income from the business. Gross receipts from rental property are gross income. Do not deduct taxes, repairs, etc., to determine the gross income from rental property. Gross income includes a partner's share of the gross (not a share of the net) partnership income. Gross income also includes all unemployment compensation and certain scholarship and fellowship grants. Scholarships received by degree candidates that are used for tuition, fees, supplies, books, and equipment required for particular courses may not be included in gross income. For more information about scholarships, see chapter 1 of Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education. Tax-exempt income, such as certain social security benefits, is not included in gross income. Disabled dependent working at sheltered workshop. For purposes of this test (the gross income test), the gross income of an individual who is permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year does not include income for services the individual performs at a sheltered workshop. The availability of medical care at the workshop must be the main reason for the individual's presence there. Also, the income must come solely from activities at the workshop that are incident to this medical care. A “sheltered workshop†is a school that: Provides special instruction or training designed to alleviate the disability of the individual, and Is operated by certain tax-exempt organizations or by a state, a U.S. possession, a political subdivision of a state or possession, the United States, or the District of Columbia. “Permanently and totally disabled†has the same meaning here as under Qualifying Child, earlier. Support Test (To Be a Qualifying Relative) To meet this test, you generally must provide more than half of a person's total support during the calendar year. However, if two or more persons provide support, but no one person provides more than half of a person's total support, see Multiple Support Agreement , later. How to determine if support test is met. You figure whether you have provided more than half of a person's total support by comparing the amount you contributed to that person's support with the entire amount of support that person received from all sources. This includes support the person provided from his or her own funds. You may find Worksheet 1 helpful in figuring whether you provided more than half of a person's support. Person's own funds not used for support. A person's own funds are not support unless they are actually spent for support. Example. Your mother received $2,400 in social security benefits and $300 in interest. She paid $2,000 for lodging and $400 for recreation. She put $300 in a savings account. Even though your mother received a total of $2,700 ($2,400 + $300), she spent only $2,400 ($2,000 + $400) for her own support. If you spent more than $2,400 for her support and no other support was received, you have provided more than half of her support. Child's wages used for own support. You cannot include in your contribution to your child's support any support that is paid for by the child with the child's own wages, even if you paid the wages. Year support is provided. The year you provide the support is the year you pay for it, even if you do so with borrowed money that you repay in a later year. If you use a fiscal year to report your income, you must provide more than half of the dependent's support for the calendar year in which your fiscal year begins. Armed Forces dependency allotments. The part of the allotment contributed by the government and the part taken out of your military pay are both considered provided by you in figuring whether you provide more than half of the support. If your allotment is used to support persons other than those you name, you can take the exemptions for them if they otherwise qualify. Example. You are in the Armed Forces. You authorize an allotment for your widowed mother that she uses to support herself and her sister. If the allotment provides more than half of each person's support, you can take an exemption for each of them, if they otherwise qualify, even though you authorize the allotment only for your mother. Tax-exempt military quarters allowances. These allowances are treated the same way as dependency allotments in figuring support. The allotment of pay and the tax-exempt basic allowance for quarters are both considered as provided by you for support. Tax-exempt income. In figuring a person's total support, include tax-exempt income, savings, and borrowed amounts used to support that person. Tax-exempt income includes certain social security benefits, welfare benefits, nontaxable life insurance proceeds, Armed Forces family allotments, nontaxable pensions, and tax-exempt interest. Example 1. You provide $4,000 toward your mother's support during the year. She has earned income of $600, nontaxable social security benefits of $4,800, and tax-exempt interest of $200. She uses all these for her support. You cannot claim an exemption for your mother because the $4,000 you provide is not more than half of her total support of $9,600. Example 2. Your brother's daughter takes out a student loan of $2,500 and uses it to pay her college tuition. She is personally responsible for the loan. You provide $2,000 toward her total support. You cannot claim an exemption for her because you provide less than half of her support. Social security benefits. If a husband and wife each receive benefits that are paid by one check made out to both of them, half of the total paid is considered to be for the support of each spouse, unless they can show otherwise. If a child receives social security benefits and uses them toward his or her own support, the benefits are considered as provided by the child. Support provided by the state (welfare, food stamps, housing, etc.). Benefits provided by the state to a needy person generally are considered support provided by the state. However, payments based on the needs of the recipient will not be considered as used entirely for that person's support if it is shown that part of the payments were not used for that purpose.Total Support To figure if you provided more than half of a person's support, you must first determine the total support provided for that person. Total support includes amounts spent to provide food, lodging, clothing, education, medical and dental care, recreation, transportation, and similar necessities. Generally, the amount of an item of support is the amount of the expense incurred in providing that item. For lodging, the amount of support is the fair rental value of the lodging. Expenses that are not directly related to any one member of a household, such as the cost of food for the household, must be divided among the members of the household. Example 1. Grace Brown, mother of , lives with and and their two children. Grace gets social security benefits of $2,400, which she spends for clothing, transportation, and recreation. Grace has no other income. and 's total food expense for the household is $5,200. They pay Grace's medical and drug expenses of $1,200. The fair rental value of the lodging provided for Grace is $1,800 a year, based on the cost of similar rooming facilities. Figure Grace's total support as follows: Fair rental value of lodging $ 1,800 Clothing, transportation, and recreation 2,400 Medical expenses 1,200 Share of food (1/5 of $5,200) 1,040 Total support $6,440 The support and provide ($1,800 lodging + $1,200 medical expenses + $1,040 food = $4,040) is more than half of Grace's $6,440 total support. Example 2. Your parents live with you, your spouse, and your two children in a house you own. The fair rental value of your parents' share of the lodging is $2,000 a year ($1,000 each), which includes furnishings and utilities. Your father receives a nontaxable pension of $4,200, which he spends equally between your mother and himself for items of support such as clothing, transportation, and recreation. Your total food expense for the household is $6,000. Your heat and utility bills amount to $1,200. Your mother has hospital and medical expenses of $600, which you pay during the year. Figure your parents' total support as follows: Support provided Father Mother Fair rental value of lodging $1,000 $1,000 Pension spent for their support 2,100 2,100 Share of food (1/6 of $6,000) 1,000 1,000 Medical expenses for mother 600 Parents' total support $4,100 $4,700 You must apply the support test separately to each parent. You provide $2,000 ($1,000 lodging, $1,000 food) of your father's total support of $4,100 — less than half. You provide $2,600 to your mother ($1,000 lodging, $1,000 food, $600 medical) — more than half of her total support of $4,700. You meet the support test for your mother, but not your father. Heat and utility costs are included in the fair rental value of the lodging, so these are not considered separately. Lodging. If you provide a person with lodging, you are considered to provide support equal to the fair rental value of the room, apartment, house, or other shelter in which the person lives. Fair rental value includes a reasonable allowance for the use of furniture and appliances, and for heat and other utilities that are provided. Fair rental value defined. This is the amount you could reasonably expect to receive from a stranger for the same kind of lodging. It is used instead of actual expenses such as taxes, interest, depreciation, paint, insurance, utilities, cost of furniture and appliances, etc. In some cases, fair rental value may be equal to the rent paid. If you provide the total lodging, the amount of support you provide is the fair rental value of the room the person uses, or a share of the fair rental value of the entire dwelling if the person has use of your entire home. If you do not provide the total lodging, the total fair rental value must be divided depending on how much of the total lodging you provide. If you provide only a part and the person supplies the rest, the fair rental value must be divided between both of you according to the amount each provides. Example. Your parents live rent free in a house you own. It has a fair rental value of $5,400 a year furnished, which includes a fair rental value of $3,600 for the house and $1,800 for the furniture. This does not include heat and utilities. The house is completely furnished with furniture belonging to your parents. You pay $600 for their utility bills. Utilities are not usually included in rent for houses in the area where your parents live. Therefore, you consider the total fair rental value of the lodging to be $6,000 ($3,600 fair rental value of the unfurnished house, $1,800 allowance for the furnishings provided by your parents, and $600 cost of utilities) of which you are considered to provide $4,200 ($3,600 + $600). Person living in his or her own home. The total fair rental value of a person's home that he or she owns is considered support contributed by that person. Living with someone rent free. If you live with a person rent free in his or her home, you must reduce the amount you provide for support of that person by the fair rental value of lodging he or she provides you. Property. Property provided as support is measured by its fair market value. Fair market value is the price that property would sell for on the open market. It is the price that would be agreed upon between a willing buyer and a willing seller, with neither being required to act, and both having reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts. Capital expenses. Capital items, such as furniture, appliances, and cars, that are bought for a person during the year can be included in total support under certain circumstances. The following examples show when a capital item is or is not support. Example 1. You buy a $200 power lawn mower for your 13-year-old child. The child is given the duty of keeping the lawn trimmed. Because the lawn mower benefits all members of the household, you cannot include the cost of the lawn mower in the support of your child. Example 2. You buy a $150 television set as a birthday present for your 12-year-old child. The television set is placed in your child's bedroom. You can include the cost of the television set in the support of your child. Example 3. You pay $5,000 for a car and register it in your name. You and your 17-year-old daughter use the car equally. Because you own the car and do not give it to your daughter but merely let her use it, you cannot include the cost of the car in your daughter's total support. However, you can include in your daughter's support your out-of-pocket expenses of operating the car for her benefit. Example 4. Your 17-year-old son, using personal funds, buys a car for $4,500. You provide all the rest of your son's support — $4,000. Since the car is bought and owned by your son, the car's fair market value ($4,500) must be included in his support. Your son has provided more than half of his own total support of $8,500 ($4,500 + $4,000), so he is not your qualifying child. You did not provide more than half of his total support, so he is not your qualifying relative. You cannot claim an exemption for your son. Medical insurance premiums. Medical insurance premiums you pay, including premiums for supplementary Medicare coverage, are included in the support you provide. Medical insurance benefits. Medical insurance benefits, including basic and supplementary Medicare benefits, are not part of support. Tuition payments and allowances under the GI Bill. Amounts veterans receive under the GI Bill for tuition payments and allowances while they attend school are included in total support. Example. During the year, your son receives $2,200 from the government under the GI Bill. He uses this amount for his education. You provide the rest of his support — $2,000. Because GI benefits are included in total support, your son's total support is $4,200 ($2,200 + $2,000). You have not provided more than half of his support. Child care expenses. If you pay someone to provide child or dependent care, you can include these payments in the amount you provided for the support of your child or disabled dependent, even if you claim a credit for the payments. For information on the credit, see Publication 503, Child and Dependent Care Expenses. Other support items. Other items may be considered as support depending on the facts in each case. Do Not Include in Total Support The following items are not included in total support. Federal, state, and local income taxes paid by persons from their own income. Social security and Medicare taxes paid by persons from their own income. Life insurance premiums. Funeral expenses. Scholarships received by your child if your child is a full-time student. Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance payments used for the support of the child who receives them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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