I live with my parents. Even though my father is above the $3500 income threshold for claiming parents dependent, my mother falls well below the threshold. Can I claim my mother as dependent on my tax returns assuming I provide more than 50% support for her, which I easily do? If I claim her on my tax returns, will my father and mother still file "married filing jointly?" I understand that if they file togethr, their standard deduction will be reduced because I have claimed her.
Your parents could still file a joint return without impacting your dependency exemption ONLY if the reason they file is to obtain a full refund of withheld taxes. If they file for any other reason, e.g. to obtain an advance payment (aka "tax rebate') on 2008 taxes, she could not be your dependent.
Thank you very much for your reply. Can you please clarify one issue? My father will get a refund but not for the entire amount of taxes he paid. He should get about 80% of paid taxes back. So when you say "full refund" does that mean that his tax liability for the year(2007) has to be zero for me to claim my mother as dependent or can I still claim her as long as my father is getting majority of the taxes he paid in 2007 back?
Again, thank you in advance. IK
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If they file a joint return, there is a joint refund... not a refund for your father. So.. if they file a joint return and there is still a tax liability then you can not claim either parent as a dependent.
Thank you very much for your help. Hopefully you can clarify one more time!
So in order for me to claim my mother as dependent (assuming we meet the criteria that I provided more than 50% support and she made less than $3,500), my father would have to file a tax return as "married filing seperatly." In addition, the fact that he does not owe any taxes and getting about 80% of the taxes he paid last year back satisfies the conditon that he has no tax liability? In the case that my father files as "married filing sepertly", my mother would still have to file a tax return even though she made no money and she is being claimed as dependent on some one else's tax return?? Am I correct in this thinking?
Here are the facts to better illustrate the situation: Father: made over $3,500, IRS owes him about 80% of the taxes he paid in 2007 Mother: made no money in 2007, lives with me, I virtually fully support her. Can I claim her as dependent as long as father files a return "married filing seperatly" and mother also files as "marrief filing seperatly?" Thank you in advance. Ik
You're getting confused because you're looking at a refund as not paying taxes. Focus instead on the fact that the refund is your father's money that the gummint's had its mitts on during the year. If they don't give back every penny he paid in, he's paying taxes.
If your parents file a joint return AND if they filed separately at least one of them would have some tax liability, no matter how that liability is paid, then they both fail the joint return test for dependency. This appears to be the case for your parents.
No. She has no filing requirement, and there's no reason for her to file.
It's all clear now. Thank you so much for all your help.
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