Son pays mom's mortgage

No, the son has no legal obligation to pay it. Neither can the mother as she did not pay it.

-- Regards,

Mark Rigotti

Why is that different from the son giving his mother the money, and then her making the payments? Seems to me it should be treated the same way. Stu

Right on, Stu. The mother can take the tax deduction. (let's hope the total did not exceed 10,000!)

If everyone started to make payments for everyone else, the tax authorities would never know whether or not a payment was a gift, support payment or a direct expense. If the son wants to help his mother and she has a tax obligation that can benefit from a tax deduction, he ought to gift her the money and let her make the payments. As long as the annual gifts to his mother stay under the $11K limit, he would not have to file a gift tax return.

-- Alan

The difference is that he did not do that. OP says that HE paid. ChEAr$, Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA Sat 12 Mar 2005

The difference is that when the son gives the money to his mother, she can choose to spend it however she wants, i.e. it is her money.

At a meta-level, it's the tax code, it doesn't have to make sense. For example (this example has been blessed by the great EdZ in the dim mists of the past :-)

Scenario A:

• Deposit ,000 in a checking account.

• Buy ,000 stock in a brokerage account.

• Write a ,000 check to the brokerage account to cover the initial margin requirement.

• Use the remaining ,000 in the checking account to buy a home theater setup.

Scenario B:

• Deposit ,000 in a brokerage account.

• Buy ,000 stock in that account.

• Take out a ,000 margin loan to buy the home theater setup.

In both scenarios, you finish with $10,000 of stock, a $5,000 debt, no cash, and a home theater setup. However, only in scenario A is the interest on the margin loan deductible.

-- Rich Carreiro snipped-for-privacy@animato.arlington.ma.us

Which reminds me of one more thing:

In many (if not all) states, children have the legal obligation to provide for their parents, if the parents can't provide for themselves. Just as parents have to provide for their children. My understanding is that legally required support payments are not considered to be taxable gifts. Stu

I'm pretty sure that Stu was asking a rhetorical question, for we know the answer is that one cannot deduct such a payment unless (1) he actually pays it and (2) he is on the hook for it. Now I'm wondering, what does the figure 10,000 have to do with anything. Wait; dont' tell me. I'll figure it out by tomorrow.

ChEAr$, Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA Sun 13 Mar 2005

Stu,

Let's see my dad made charitable donations to our church. Since he can't itemize he put tem under my envelope #. Can I now deduct them? I did not write the check.

-- Regards,

Mark Rigotti

That sounds similar to the practice of making a donation in someone else's name, perhaps in lieu of a birthday present. In that case, who gets the deduction? Stu