Working Caregiver- Caregiver Articles
Senior Tax Tips - As more people find themselves caring for an elderly parent or relative, expenses for everyone involved are mounting.
Senior Tax Tips
It's hard to believe some facts that are posted on the web, but almost 25% of Americans provides care a person over the age of 50. That could be a friend or an aging parent. Another number that's a bit disturbing, close to 15% of working adults care for seriously ill or disabled family members.
The number of us in Texas and across the U.S. looking out for an elderly parent or relative can effect our own pocket books. Nursing homes, assisted living, home health care, including medications and prescriptions, doctor visits and other care can drive costs through the roof. So, it helps to know and understand the rules around our government taxes and caregiving. As tax deadlines lurk around the corner, keep the following useful tips close at hand when preparing your taxes, if you are a caregiver:
In order to qualify for tax deductions when helping an elder or an aging parent, you, the caregiver, must provide more than half the support for the person.
If an elder is living with you and you've made construction modifications, those expenses to your home like adding a wheel chair ramp, widening doors, lowering cabinets, replacing low seating toilets, and grab bars in bath tubs might be deductible as medical expenses, given the main purpose is medical benefits.
If you itemize, the following unreimbursed medical and dental expenses can be deducted from your taxes. However, the expenses must exceed 7.5 % of your adjusted gross income.
Here's criteria that must be met:
- The care recipient must be a relative or lived with you for the entire year.
- The care recipient's gross income cannot exceed $3,100, in order to claim them as a dependent, this does not prevent claiming the medical expenses you paid for them.
- The care recipient must be a citizen or resident of the U.S., Canada or Mexico.
- The care recipient cannot file a joint tax return with spouse.
If several siblings or adult children of the elder are helping to care for the aging person, you must file a "multiple support agreement" (Form 2120). This allows a family to designate which of the caregivers will claim the care recipient as a dependent.
