Elderly Parent whom lives with us Received a 1099-R

[cyriousity]

My wife's mother who is 87 and has lived with us several years received a 1099-R from the Florida Retirement System for $4873.08 on both lines 1 and 2a.   In years past, she has only ever received Annual Statement.  She did receive this document as well which shows the annual income payment of $4003.08 and a Health Insurance Subsidy (HIS) of $870 which totals the above amount.  However, in the footnotes on the HIS payment it says "The HIS benefit is not an insurance policy and it is not part of your Florida Retirement System pension".  She has not filed a return in years, but as a precaution, I started a return on TurboTax for her but it shows she doesn't owe anything even though elsewhere in the program it is saying the $4873.08 IS taxable.  So, what do I go by? Do I file a return for her or file her as a dependent or non-dependent as we have in years past on our taxes and forgo filing a return for her.  I have never been so stuck on what to do using TurboTax.

[Bsch4477]

If that is her only taxable income she has no filing requirement so she doesn’t have to file a return. 

[DavidD66 · Accepted solution]

She is not required to file a tax return, as her income is below the threshold for filing.  Since her income exceeded $4,300, you cannot claim her as a dependent; however, if she files a return and does not indicate someone else can claim her, she will be eligible to receive the Recovery Rebate Credit (stimulus) if she didn't already receive it.