My son Pete is 24, and he recently moved back home, my first wife (Pete’s mom) is living in the Philippines taking care of her ailing father and can’t help him. Meanwhile I was six months into a divorce from my second wife and having a blast, when he popped in and asked to move in for a spell. He had been selling cars until being let go a year ago due to the poor economy, since he’s been with me he can’t hold a job for more than a week or two, and is unable to pay rent or pull his weight at all. He eats like an entire football team, he chain smokes, he doesn’t clean up after himself, and has a girlfriend who is under the impression that she can come and go as she pleases.
This isn’t the son I raised, he used to be very neat, and he was an honor student and a standout wrestler at his high school. He doesn’t seem to be on drugs, and I know for a fact he doesn’t drink. His problem is laziness plain and simple. Which would be fine if he was self sufficient, but that is far from the case, I’m not a tyrant or anything, I’m just about as lay back as one can imagine I just want him to work.
I want to help him, but I’m entitled to my life too, aren’t I? I did my job raising him and I think that I’m being taken advantage of; I went as far as to place brochures from an Army recruiter in the refrigerator. That may seem harsh, but I didn’t know what else to do he’s eating me out of house and home, and my place looks like hillbillies live there.
So how can I handle this? Can I still write him off on my taxes? My friends Roy and Isabel have a twenty two year old daughter with Down’s syndrome and I believe that they use her as a tax deduction, I’d ask them but I fear that they would think that I’m a jerk for doing so. I’m not being unreasonable, if I was I’d give him a month to get a job and get out, I just think that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try and make a buck off of this unfortunate situation.
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As a healthy 24 year old, you can ONLY claim Pete as a qualifying relative.
1. Lived with you all year or is your biological son.
2. He’s single or married and not filing with spouse.
3. He’s a US citizen or resident.
(I assume you pass all of these.)
4. His income (W2, unemployment, etc) is LESS than $3650.
5. You can prove you provided more than half of his support.
See IRS pub 501 for the support test.
Yes he already meets the relationship test because he is your son. if you provide more than 50% of his support then ofcourse you can get a deduction of about 3650 for him. However, when he files his taxes he will not be eligible to claim himself. i say go for it.. You take care of him
If in those brief times he’s worked he made over $3650 for the year, then no you can’t claim him. If his total gross income is under that, and you provided over half of his support for the year, you can most likely claim him as a qualifying relative.
You can claim your son as a Qualifying Relative if you provided more than half of his support and he did not earn more than $3650 in 2009.
Read IRS Publication 501 concerning claiming exemptions for adults.
Sounds like you have a lot more challenges than just the tax issue. There are lots of good answers here to help you on that front, but you need some serious help getting your son on the path to independence and figuring out a way to maintain your sanity. There are good tips and articles at http://www.adultchildrenlivingathome.com.