We supported my MIL but she lived in her own apartment and had a SS check, but couldn't/didn't drive and took her to all the docs, does she qualify as a dependent?

[Kollette]

One of us were over there almost every day in 2025. She had "income" but she was literally dependent on us to survive. There was no one else. She just passed on 2/13/26 and life insurance was nowhere near term. We were hoping she could be claimed as dependent so we could pay the funeral home for cremation

[DoninGA]

You may be able to claim her as a dependent under the Qualifying Relative rules.  As long as you provided over one-half of her support and her gross income for the year was less than $5,200 (Social Security does not count).

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 $5,200 (social security does not count) in 2025
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.

[Vanessa A]

Possibly.  In order to claim her as a dependent, she would have had to have less than $5,200 in income (not counting non taxable social security).  Since she is your spouses parent, she would not have had to live with you if you were provided over half of her support for the year. 

When claiming a parent as a dependent, you may be eligible to get the $500 Non-Refundable Other Dependent Credit .  If you paid her medical expenses, and are itemizing your return, you would be able to claim them as an itemized expense if you are itemizing your return.  

Itemized expenses include mortgage interest, gambling losses up to 90% or up to winnings (whichever is less),  charitable contributions, state and local taxes up to $40,000, medical expenses in excess of 7.5% of your AGI and federally declared casualty and losses in excess of 10% of you AGI with the first $100 not counting towards the loss.  Medical expenses are only deductible for the amount that is over 7.5% of your AGI.  This means if your AGI is $50,000, then the amount that is over $3,750 is deductible.  

Then your total itemized expenses would need to be greater than your standard deduction below in order to benefit from your expenses. 

The 2025 Standard Deductions are as follows:

• Married Filing Joint (MFJ)              $31,500
• Married Filing Separate (MFS)      $15,750
• Head of Household (HOH)             $23,625 
• Single                                                 $15,750     

Steps to Claiming an Elderly Parent as a Dependent