DEPENDENT RELATIVE MAKES OVER $5050 IN SSA CAN I CLAIM HER AS DEPENDENT?

[AEX6]

TURBO TAX SAYS: Do they make less than $5,050 in 2024 ($5,200 for 2025)? Your relative can't have a gross income of more than $5,050 in 2024 and be claimed by you as a dependent. This threshold increases to $5,200 for 2025. Certain income is excluded from this requirement.

My mother in law is my dependent but makes only $5700 in SSA benefit which is over $5050. My understanding is that since this is non taxable unearned income, it shouldn't count towards the $5050 gross income benefit for relative dependent and i should be able to claim her on my taxes as dependent. Can anyone confirm?

[DoninGA]

Under the Qualifying Relative rules for claiming a dependent, their Social Security benefits are not counted for gross income.

To be a Qualifying Relative -

1. The person cannot be your qualifying child or the qualifying child of any other taxpayer. A child is not the qualifying child of any other taxpayer if the child's parent (or any other person for whom the child is defined as a qualifying child) is not required to file an income tax return or files an income tax return only to get a refund on income tax withheld.
2. The person either (a) must be related to you or (b) must live with you all year as a member of your household.
3. The person's gross income for the year must be less than $5,050 (social security does not count) in 2024
4. You must provide more than half of the person's total support for the year.
5. The person must be a U.S. citizen or a U.S., Canada, or Mexico resident for some part of the year.
6. The person must not file a joint return with their spouse with the following exception -
You can claim a person as a dependent who files a joint return if that person and that person’s spouse file the joint return only to claim a refund of income tax withheld or estimated tax paid.

[AEX6]

Thank you. She makes just about $5700 in SSA. If she would make over $25k in SSA , then i believe it would count as SSA is taxable after $25K?

[DoninGA]

Social Security benefits are only taxable based on other income being reported on the tax return.

Up to 85% of Social Security Retirement/Disability/Survivors benefits becomes taxable when all your other income plus 1/2 your social security reaches:

Married Filing Jointly - $32,000
Single or Head of Household - $25,000
Married Filing Separately - 0

If Social Security is the only income they receive then it does not matter how much is received as none of the SS benefits are included in the gross income.

However, if there is a large amount of SS benefits then they may be paying for over one-half of their own support.  So in that case they could not be claimed as a dependent.