My mother was confined to a nursing home for all of 2007. She has income from social security and a federal pension. The nursing home (of course) is taking every penny with Medicaid picking up the gap. Are filing taxes required if all her income is going to a nursing home. If so, I assume her income minus her credits will create a $0.00 net income, yes? Are the any rules or tricks to filing in this situation? Thanks for any advice you can give me.
If your mother is single, age 65 or older, and her gross income (not including Social Security) was less than $10,050, she has no federal income tax filing requirement for 2007.
Katie in San Diego
No difference in filing requirement/procedure as from prior to the time she was a nursing home resident. If the confinement is required, then the expenses are virtually all deductible as qualified medical expenses. You will want a letter from her attending physician in your files stating the need for the care in case of any IRS question (unlikely for this reason, but just in case).
But to get the tax rebate she'll have to file. Though if it'll all going to Medicaid anyway, she/you may feel it's not worth the time to bother with.
-- Rich Carreiro snipped-for-privacy@rlcarr.com
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