Mother 94, lives independently. Can not claim her as a dependent, only paid 47% of her expenses. Receives aid for utilities/SNAP. How do we claim the cash we have paid?

[Bristol2]

Mother receives SSI, SNAP and credits for local utilities. 2017 she ran out of money and we depositing approx. $1000 per month into her bank account For 2017 this is about 47% of her total expenses for 2017. How ca we get a tax break for supporting her ? Any advise welcome. Regards, Roger and Debbie.

[Phillip1 · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, the only way you could get a tax benefit for this situation is if you can claim her as a dependent. 

However, if there are multiple siblings that are helping with her support, and the combined support is greater than 50% of her financial support, you and the other siblings that provide support could enter into a multiple support agreement.

In a multiple support agreement, a group of taxpayers (usually a group of siblings for an aging parent) provide more than half of the support (but no individual provides more than half alone) to an individual. The members of the group sign a statement that allows one member of the group to claim the exemption each year.