Can I claim my father on my taxes if he is disabled and unable to work but is not yet receiving disability payments?

[knight00795]

Last year I had to pay for my fathers every day life, food, clothes and what not.

[MaryK1 · Accepted solution]

The four tests for your father to be a dependent as your qualifying relative:

1. Not a qualifying child test- he cannot be claimed as a dependent by someone else  (If he is totally and permanently disabled and one of his parents can claim him, you cannot)                  

2. Member of household or relationship test, but because he is your father he does not have to live with you 

3. Gross income test, his gross income for the year must be less than $4,050.                             

4. Support test. you generally must provide more than half of a person's total support during the calendar year
   

[chrispy1486]

What items or bills if any have to be excluded when tallying up half of total support for the year for example are all bills included such as cable bill phone bill and does total support include entertainment expense? I'm not certain what list will be shorter but what things can be included or must be excluded when adding up total support for the calendar year ( that is then to be divided in half, of course). My best friend/roommate gets about $40 a month on an EBT card, about $1,100. cash monthly from SSD and has Medicare  (she is disabled) but I spend a lot more than half of the money that she has to spend each year. She has a very hard time keeping track of due dates on her bills  so I decided on a joint bank account  and set her up with auto pay on most of her bills. I pay for EVERYTHING that she can't all yr, every yr, and it's a lot more than half of her "total support". We live together and I wonder if under the circumstances I can claim her and if I can if there are exceptions to the things that can be counted towards her total support for the calendar year.