Head of Household or single

[Pacun]

Tax payer had $200K savings at the beginning of 2009 and at the end of 2009, he had only $20K (this if for Jainen, mainly). No loans or gifts were involved in 2009 for any of the people mentioned here. No other source of income, only the W-2s mentioned.

All the people I am going to mention here are single and lived in the same place the whole year.

Tax payer (Mark) lived all 2009 with his sister (Rose), her boyfriend (Rob) and their son (Thomas).

Tax payer (Mark) was born Oct 23, 1990

Sister (Rose) was born Jan 5, 1970.

Boyfriend of sister (Rob) was born March 15, 1970

Rose's and Rob's son (Thomas) was born October 25, 1990.

Rob supported 100% his girlfriend (Rose) and he also supported their child and his income from his only job was $150,000.00 (one hundred fifty thousand)

Mark supported his mother 100% in 2009. She was in a nursing home in FL the whole year and Mark paid everything for the nursing home... everything. Mother had 0 savings at the beginning of the year and 0 savings at the end of the year. Again no gifts, loans, inheritance or found a bag full of money. Mother didn't have any social security or retirement income.

Mark's W-2 shows that he made $14K and his money made $1,800.00 in interest. No other income.

Rose and Thomas didn't work and didn't have any income, gifts, loans, or inheritances.

Can Mark file as head of household and get earn income credit? Is he entitled to EIC under IRS laws? Can he enforce the law if the other members of the house where he lives don't want to cooperate?

[mcb39]

Without a qualifying child, you cannot claim EIC if you are under the age of 25.

[David1980]

Head of Household should be easy. Mark provides 100% of the support for his mother. Claim the mother as qualifying relative & that also qualifies for HOH, so long as he did pay over half the cost of maintaining a home.

EIC would be a no. Only person he could claim to get EIC would be Thomas. However, under the new dependency rules for 2009 if a parent can claim the child as qualifying child, a non-parent cannot claim the child. So Mark cannot claim Thomas.

[kcjenkins]

He gets HOH status for supporting his mother, but nothing else. Parent does not have to live with him to give him HOH status. No EIC because he is too young to qualify without a child, and he does not have a child.

[jainen]

>>Mother had 0 savings at the beginning of the year and 0 savings at the end of the year. Again no gifts, loans, inheritance or found a bag full of money. Mother didn't have any social security or retirement income.<<

Just to be thorough, I'll mention that in my opinion this fine rendering of destitution does NOT meet all the requirements for claiming a dependent. Therefore, in my opinion, you have not established eligibility for Head of Household.

[kcjenkins]

What part of "Mark supported his mother 100% in 2009. She was in a nursing home in FL the whole year and Mark paid everything for the nursing home... everything." is not clear?

[jainen]

>>What part of "Mark supported his mother 100% in 2009. She was in a nursing home in FL the whole year and Mark paid everything for the nursing home... everything." is not clear?<<

An elderly parent in a nursing home in Florida with no Social Security or Medicaid is a common scenario for an illegal alien, and the original post did not even hint that the individual is a U.S. citizen, resident alien or national, or a resident of Canada or Mexico. Nor did it establish that she is unmarried or did not file MFJ. And it curiously dodged around the issue of gross income, only mentioning certain types of income. That makes me wonder what might have been left out of even "supported his mother 100%."

In my opinion, these requirements are every bit as important as support. If the answers are known, why leave them out? If they are not known, let's wait until we have all the facts.

[kcjenkins]

Gee, you think just like an IRS employee, Jainen. Opps, don't mean to be insulting. But yeah, you do make the point that the law is so darn complex that we can not answer anything without making a lot of assumptions.

[TAXBILLY]

>>An elderly parent in a nursing home<<

Let's see, Mark the son is 20 yet you believe his mother is "elderly"?

That would make me at 65 super elderly!

taxbilly

[BulldogTom]

Taxbilly,

His sister is 20 years older than him. Sounds like the taxpayer was an "oops". ;o) Having children 20 years apart will make you "elderly" in a hurry.

Tom

Lodi, CA

[TAXBILLY]

Perhaps they had different mothers? :~)

Pacun said his mother not their mother.

This is fun!

taxbilly

[Pacun]

Jainen said: "An elderly parent in a nursing home in Florida with no Social Security or Medicaid is a common scenario for an illegal alien"

Gues what, even is she entered the US crossing the border by foot in December 2008 and went to the nursing home at the end of december, the son can apply for an ITIN and claim her.

But let's assume for the sake of the exercise that all persons involved here are U.S Citizens.

"Let's see, Mark the son is 20 yet you believe his mother is "elderly"?

That would make me at 65 super elderly!

taxbilly"

Why we are deviating from the original question. I don't see anywhere in the tax code to say that a mother cannot have a child if she is 80 years old or even 100.

"His sister is 20 years older than him. Sounds like the taxpayer was an "oops". ;o) Having children 20 years apart will make you "elderly" in a hurry.

Tom

Lodi, CA"

Again, why we are not addressing the questions?

This is not a real situation, but Mark qualifies as head of household because he supported his mother 100% and she is in the US... AND he qualifies for EIC because he had a qualifying child living with him in 2009. He cannot claim the exemption for Thomas but he will be treated as his qualifying child because:

Mark is 2 days older than Thomas (TP must be older than qualifying child)

Mark had more income than one of the parents (Mother made only 0 and Mark made $14,000 plus $1,800.

Thomas is not his dependent because Mark provided 0 for his support but Thomas is his qualifying child because he lived with him all year, Mark is older than Thomas and Thomas is a decendent of his sister. Based on what I have said, can we constructely discuss this situation?

Thank you.

[TAXBILLY]

Pacun:

You are too serious! Taxes should be fun. :~)

taxbilly

[jainen]

>>let's assume for the sake of the exercise that all persons involved here are U.S Citizens.... Why we are deviating from the original question.<<

You can't have it both ways, my friend.

>>she is in the US<<

Now you tell us! I thought when you said FL you meant Furstentum Liechtenstein, like the license plate on that snobby Beemer down the street. Anyway, just crossing the border, as you say, isn't enough. One has to be a U.S. citizen, resident alien or national, or a resident of Canada or Mexico.

>>he had a qualifying child living with him in 2009<<

Who, Thomas? No, Thomas is too old unless he's in school or disabled--more info you didn't give us. Anyway he can ONLY be a qualifying child of his parents--new law this year, remember? Heck, I figured the whole forum would at least get THAT point, after jainen had to admit being wrong in the thread about that stupid flowchart [useful Flowcharts for Dependancy rules]. Yeah, I see you trying to say "Mark had more income than one of the parents," but hey, you gotta account for BOTH parents.

>>Based on what I have said, can we constructely discuss this situation?<<

How about constructively discussing it based on what JAINEN has said, Pacun?

[Pacun]

You are right I messed up the dates. I thought Thomas was 18. I meant to say that Mark and Thomas were born in October 1991.

I was on the telephone conference with the IRS and they said that the related taxpayer should make more money than ANY of the parents. Maybe more than both parents if parents are married.

Now, mother is a citizen of mexico and crossed the border in 2008 and mother will apply for ITIN. Will that satisfy your head of house requirement? Will that change if she stayed in a nursing home in Mexico?

[kcjenkins]

IRC 152(c )(4)

(C ) No parent claiming qualifying child

If the parents of an individual may claim such individual as a qualifying child but no parent so claims the individual, such individual may be claimed as the qualifying child of another taxpayer but only if the adjusted gross income of such taxpayer is higher than the highest adjusted gross income of any parent of the individual.

[Tax Prep by Deb]

It's threads like this that I learn so much!

Deb! :scratch_head:

[mcb39]

It's threads like this that I learn so much!

Deb!

No Kidding.......but sure had my head spinning there for a while. NOW, can we pass the test?

[jainen]

>>can we pass the test?<<

What do you think of the proposal in an earlier post that "Thomas is not his dependent because Mark provided 0 for his support but Thomas is his qualifying child because he lived with him all year"?

[mcb39]

>>can we pass the test?<<

What do you think of the proposal in an earlier post that "Thomas is not his dependent because Mark provided 0 for his support but Thomas is his qualifying child because he lived with him all year"?

Do you really want to know what I think?????? It's all part of the learning curve.....

[Lion EA]

I like reading the discussions, but I like the humor, too. We can't laugh in the face of our client who asks if she can claim her 40 year old son who still lives at home but makes a bundle. But, we can make fun of made-up clients or even real clients that are posted. We gotta see the humor in situations or we won't make it through tax season.

[Pacun]

IRC 152(c )(4)

(C ) No parent claiming qualifying child

If the parents of an individual may claim such individual as a qualifying child but no parent so claims the individual, such individual may be claimed as the qualifying child of another taxpayer but only if the adjusted gross income of such taxpayer is higher than the highest adjusted gross income of any parent of the individual.

Thank you KC. This is exactly what I needed. So, in order for Mark to qualify for EIC, the father had to make less than $15,800 and not claim Thomas. EVEN THOUGH HE PROVIDED 0 for Tomas' support. Of course, if they were born in Oct 1991 NOT 1990 as originally posted.

[kcjenkins]

Of course, the real lesson here is how crazy complex the code has gotten, that you need such a complex chart to calculate who is a dependent. A question that the layman assumes is simple. And why those using TT so often screw up.