Assuming you meet all the rules for Qualifying Relative, she can claim you. She can also claim Head of Household if you qualify her.
Qualifying
Relative
- Do they live
with you? Your relative must live at your residence all year or be on the
list of “relatives who do not live with you” in Publication 501. About 30 types of relatives are on this
list.
- Do they make less
than $4,050? Your relative cannot have a gross income of more
than $4,050 and be claimed by you as a dependent.
- Do you financially support
them? You must provide more than half of your relative’s total
support each year.
- Are they a
citizen or resident? The person must be a U.S. citizen, a U.S.
national, a U.S. resident, or a resident of Canada or Mexico. Many people
wonder if they can claim a foreign-exchange student who temporarily lives
with them. The answer is maybe, but only if they meet this requirement.
- Are you the
only person claiming them as a dependent? You can’t claim someone who
takes a personal exemption for himself or claims another dependent on his
own tax form.
- Are they
filing a joint return? You cannot claim someone who is married and
files a joint tax return. Say you support your married teen-aged son: If
he files a joint return with his spouse, you can’t claim him as a
dependent.
Head of Household
You may be able to
file as head of household if you meet all the following requirements.
- You are unmarried or considered
unmarried on the last day of the year. See Marital Status , earlier,
and Considered Unmarried , later.
- You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for
the year.
- A qualifying person lived with you in the
home for more than half the year (except for temporary absences, such as
school). However, if the qualifying person is your dependent parent, he or
she doesn't have to live with you. See Special rule
for parent , later,
under Qualifying Person.
Special rule for parent.
If your qualifying person is your father or
mother, you may be eligible to file as head of household even if your
father or mother doesn't live with you. However, you must be able to
claim an exemption for your father or mother. Also, you must pay more
than half the cost of keeping up a home that was the main home for the
entire year for your father or mother.
If you pay more than half the cost of keeping
your parent in a rest home or home for the elderly, that counts as
paying more than half the cost of keeping up your parent's main home.
