@cornelius1 wrote:
Pay for mom to get at home care three times
If you pay medical expenses for a dependent, including a parent, you can list those with your medical expenses. You can also deduct the medical expenses of a parent who is not your dependent, as long as you paid more than half their total living expenses.
Medical expenses are described here.
https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-502
Importantly, home care may not always be "medical" expenses. Nursing services are deductible. They don't have to be provided by a nurse but must be the kind of services usually performed by nurses, such as assistance with eating, dressing, bathing, using the toilet, or providing medication, wound care, and so on. Costs for companionship, laundry, cleaning and meal preparation are not medical costs, and if the home care aides provide these services, you need to determine the percentage of their time they perform medical services and only deduct that percentage of the cost.
If your mother has a chronic illness or a cognitive impairment, you can sometimes deduct the entire cost of a home care aide as medical, if you follow certain rules. It depends on what care your mother needed.
