Who is qualifying relative

Simply use the easy step-by-step RELucator tax educator tool below and you will find out for sure who a qualifying relative is:.

Start The RELucator! An individual must meet all 4 of these requirements in order to be considered your Qualifying Relative :. The tax tool below will help you determine whether or not someone is your Qualifying Relative. Read the questions and simply click on Yes or No and follow the steps until you get the answer you are looking for! Find out if your relative or other person is a dependent now!

When you prepare your return on eFile. Be sure to answer all the questions carefully and pay particular attention to the questions on the Advanced Options link at the bottom in the Your Dependent section to make sure that your dependent gets added to your return correctly. In some situations, the IRS has outlined special cases which allows a person to be claimed as a qualifying relative despite the requirements listed above.

A person is still considered to be living with you during any period of time when either of you are temporarily away from home due to school, business, military service, medical care, vacation, or in the case if a child has been kidnapped.

If a Qualifying Relative is placed in a nursing home permanently or indefinitely, they are still considered to be away on a temporary absence. If someone died at any time during the year, but lived with you as a member of your household for the rest of the year, they are considered to have lived with you for the entire year. If a child was born at any time during the year, but lived with you as a member of your household for the rest of the year, they are also considered to have lived with you all year.

In the case of either birth or death, any related hospital stay is considered a temporary absence. Any income that someone receives, but does not spend on their own support, is not counted as part of their income used for their own support in the support requirement for a qualifying relative. If you and one or more other people together provide more than half of a person's support, and that person meets the requirements to be the Qualifying Relative of each of you, you can agree among yourselves who gets to claim the person as a Qualifying Relative.

A son or daughter of your brother or sister. A son or daughter of your half brother or half 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. Who can I claim as my dependent? Can a married person claim Head of Household filing status?

Fortunately, there is some good news: You may be able to claim your elderly relative as a dependent come tax time, as long as you meet certain criteria. Here's what you should know about claiming an elderly parent or relative as a dependent:. The IRS defines a dependent as a qualifying child or relative. A qualifying relative can be your mother, father, grandparent, stepmother, stepfather, mother-in-law, or father-in-law, for example, and can be any age.

There are four tests that must be met in order for a person to be your qualifying relative: not a qualifying child test, member of household or relationship test, gross income test, and support test. He or she must be U. If your qualifying parent or relative does live with you, however, you may be able to deduct a percentage of your mortgage, utilities, and other expenses when you figure out the amount of money you contribute to his or her support.

In addition, your parent or relative, if married, cannot file a joint tax return with his or her spouse unless that joint return is filed only to claim a refund of withheld income tax or estimated tax paid. You must provide more than half of a parent's total support for the year such as costs for food, housing, medical care, transportation and other necessities.

You may be able to claim the child and dependent care credit if you paid work-related expenses for the care of a qualifying individual. The credit is generally a percentage of the amount of work-related expenses you paid to a care provider for the care of a qualifying individual.

The percentage depends on your adjusted gross income. Work-related expenses qualifying for the credit are those paid for the care of a qualifying individual to enable you to work or actively look for work.

In addition, expenses you paid for the care of a disabled dependent may also qualify for a medical deduction see next section.