Can I claim my 46 year old aunt with disabilities as a dependent on my taxes?

Thanks for this info! Question though - does my aunt need to file any kind of tax form herself even though she has no income? Also, does her owning the house we live in affect anything? Like does that count as her supporting herself in some way?

Your aunt doesn't need to file a tax return if she has no taxable income, which appears to be the case since EBT benefits aren't taxable. Regarding the house, this is an important consideration. The fair rental value of the lodging she provides to herself would count as support she provides to herself, not support you provide to her. However, you can still qualify as providing over half her total support if your contributions (utilities, food, medical, etc.) exceed the value of the housing plus any other support she provides herself. You'd need to calculate the approximate rental value of the home and factor that in when determining if you provide more than 50% of her total support.

Does taxr.ai work for complicated situations? My uncle lives with me but gets small disability payments, and I'm never sure if I'm calculating the support test correctly.

I'm kinda skeptical about these tax tools. How does it actually know what counts as support vs what doesn't? Like can it really tell the difference between me buying groceries for myself vs for a dependent?

It absolutely works for complicated situations - that's actually where it shines. It has specific guidance for disability payment situations and walks you through what counts (and doesn't count) toward the support calculation. For tracking what counts as support, you can categorize expenses by household member, and it helps identify shared vs individual expenses. You don't have to manually figure out every grocery item - it guides you through reasonable allocations based on your specific household situation. The tool actually helped me discover some support expenses I was missing, like transportation costs and medical expenses that I hadn't been tracking properly.

It uses a technology that automatically navigates the IRS phone system and waits on hold for you. When an agent finally picks up, you get a call connecting you directly to that IRS agent. You don't have to sit there listening to hold music for hours. I didn't have to give them any sensitive personal information - just my phone number so they could call me when they got an agent. They don't interact with the IRS on your behalf at all. When the IRS agent answers, it's just you talking directly to them, the service just handled the hold time part. It literally saved me about 4 hours of being on hold.

How exactly does this service work? I'm confused about how they can get you through to the IRS when everyone else is waiting on hold forever.

Sounds like a scam tbh. Nobody can magically get through the IRS queue. They probably just keep trying numbers on your behalf and charge you a fortune for it. Did you have to give them any personal info?

It uses a technology that automatically navigates the IRS phone system and waits on hold for you. When an agent finally picks up, you get a call connecting you directly to that

Do you know if this credit is refundable? Like if I don't owe any taxes, would I still get that $500 as part of my refund?

The Credit for Other Dependents is non-refundable, which means it can reduce your tax liability down to zero, but you won't get any excess amount as a refund. So if you only owed $300 in taxes, you'd only benefit from $300 of the potential $500 credit. However, having your aunt as a dependent might make you eligible for Head of Household filing status if you qualify, which has better tax rates and a higher standard deduction than filing as Single. That could potentially save you more than the $500 credit itself.

Food stamps/SNAP benefits aren't considered taxable income, so they don't count toward the gross income limit for dependents. They do count as support, but not as income for the income test. So your mother-in-law can still qualify as your dependent as long as her actual taxable income is under the limit (which is around $4,850 for 2024) and you provide more than half her total support.