{"id":475,"date":"2012-05-02T04:43:31","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T04:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ua-cpas.com\/blog\/?p=475"},"modified":"2012-05-02T04:43:31","modified_gmt":"2012-05-02T04:43:31","slug":"supporting-a-relative-tax-breaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/05\/02\/supporting-a-relative-tax-breaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting a Relative? You May be Entitled to Tax Breaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supporting your financially distressed relative is a commendable act that can also result in significant tax savings. If the recipient meets all of the criteria required to be deemed a \u201cqualified relative\u201d, you can benefit in several ways. First of all, the qualified relative can be claimed as a dependent and you can therefore take his personal exemption ($3,750 in 2011) on your return. Another benefit is that you can add his medical expenses to yours for the medical expense itemized deduction. This is especially important for those whose medical expenses do not exceed the 7.5% of AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) minimum threshold to deduct medical expenses. Even if you don\u2019t itemize, you can still benefit by filing as head of household instead of as single, resulting in a much greater standard deduction (in 2011 the standard deduction was $5,800 for single and $8,500 for head of household). The criteria to be a \u201cqualified relative\u201d are as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Support Requirement – You must provide over half the person\u2019s support for the year<\/li>\n
  2. Relationship Requirement – If the person doesn\u2019t live with you the entire year, he must be one of the following:\n
      \n
    1. Child, Stepchild, adopted child or descendent of your child<\/li>\n
    2. Brother, brother-in- law, stepbrother or half-brother<\/li>\n
    3. Sister, sister-in-law, stepsister or half-sister<\/li>\n
    4. Son-in-law or daughter-in-law<\/li>\n
    5. Father, stepfather or father-in-law<\/li>\n
    6. Mother, stepmother, mother in law<\/li>\n
    7. Aunt or uncle<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    8. Citizen or Resident Requirement \u2013 The supported person must be a U.S. citizen, a U.S. resident alien, a U.S. national, or a resident of Canada or Mexico<\/li>\n
    9. Same Household Requirement (only for those who fail the relationship requirement) \u2013 The supported person must live with you in the same household.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Now that your unemployed daughter and son-in-law have moved back in with you, you may enjoy more than just the pitter-patter of your grandchildren\u2019s steps.<\/p>\n

      You may enjoy numerous tax benefits.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Supporting one’s relatives may enable you to claim your relative as a dependent and deduct his medical expenses which you pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,11,14,24],"tags":[133,170],"class_list":{"0":"post-475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-small-business-forum","7":"category-estate-trusts-guardianships","8":"category-income-taxes","9":"category-medical-practices","10":"category-taxes-medical-practices","11":"tag-medical-expense-deduction","12":"tag-qualified-relatives","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ua-cpas.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}