@robriegel18
The worksheet is a bit odd because it serves two purposes, because it covers two different dependent situations with different definitions of support. Most of the worksheet is used to calculate his support costs, whether your portion of the support is more or less than half is only determined at the very end.
- Lines 1-5 calculate the funds your father used toward his own support.
- Lines 6-12 calculate the funds spent by the household where your father lived. That would be the combined cost of your father and mother's lodging, food and so on. You could calculate it as if your father shared a household with your mother until he moved into memory care (if it's a single room and they aren't in the same "household" any more. You do that by completing lines 6-12 for the time they lived together, and another copy of lines 6-12 for the time he lived alone.
- Line 14-18 calculates your father's individual support costs. For "support", if your father lived in a household with 2 people total, his support costs are 1/2 the household costs plus all of his personal support costs. That's why household food is on line 7 and individual medical expenses are on line 16.
- Then line 13 and 19 calculate you father's total support cost, being in this case, 1/2 his household expenses plus 100% of his individual expenses.
Your money never enters into it at this stage.
- Line 20 and 21 ask, did your father pay more than half his own expenses? Are his funds (line 6) more than half his costs (line 19). Assuming the answer is no, you move on to the last section.
Here, the form is negative rather than positive, for some reason. Instead of asking for what you paid, the form is asking what everyone else paid, who might have contributed to his support (that includes your mother, other family members, church, welfare, or anything else). Then logically, if know the total support costs, and you know what everyone else paid, whatever is left must be what you paid.
There is a reason the form is written the way it is, but in your situation you will get the same result if you reverse the question and ask simply, how much did you pay? And is the amount you paid more than half of his total support (line 19).
