I have a 38 year old son and a grandson who gets aide and food stamps that lives with me. Can I claim them on my taxes and is his aide considered taxable income?

[annasmyles]

When asked the question about his income how do I answer the question if it is not taxable? No income?

[SweetieJean · Accepted solution]

If the aide is govt assistance such as welfare, it is not taxable.  You may be able to claim both of them as dependents.

As an aside, their welfare and food stamps may be impacted by the fact that you are providing them with support, whether you claim them or not.

[annasmyles]

Their aide is not enough to live on it is not even enough to rent a house. And I'm sure they know this. They pay 200 a month for rent and I pay all other bills electric, gas,water and rent plus food ect....

[annasmyles]

I just want to know how to answer that question and I believe you answered it for me thank you very much!

[VolvoGirl]

You may have to report the rental income on your return.

[SweetieJean]

Good point.

[Hal_Al]

They do have to report the $200 as rent. It is not rental income, it's just relatives sharing household expenses.

[SweetieJean]

Unless they told the welfare folks that it was rent.

[Hal_Al]

You can claim your grandson as a dependent. A child closely related to a taxpayer can  be a “Qualifying Child (QC)” dependent, regardless of the child's income, if:

1.                He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or  is totally & permanently disabled

2.                He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support. Note that the support test for a QC is not that you, the taxpayer, provided more than half his support; but only that he didn't provide more than half hiss own support. Welfare is third party support, and not considered support provided by the child.

3.                He lived with the relative (including temporary absences) for more than half the year

4.                He is younger than the relative (not applicable for a disabled child)

5.                If the child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person, you must be the person entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child (this essentially means that you have the parent’s permission to claim the child)

6.                If the parents of a child can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent so claims the child, no one else can claim the child as a qualifying child unless that person's adjusted gross income (AGI) is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child's parents who can claim him.

Whether you can claim your son is not as clear. A person can still be a Qualifying relative dependent, if not a Qualifying Child, if he meets the 6 tests for claiming a dependent:

1. Closely Related OR live with you ALL year

2. His/her gross taxable income for the year must be less than $4,000 (2015)

3. You must have provided more than 1/2 his support

Welfare doesn't count as income, for the income test, but welfare money he spends on himself does count as support not provided by you, for the support test. The IRS has a worksheet that can be used to help with the support calculation. See: http://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf The support value of a home is the fair market rental value, divided by the number of occupants.