Adult Dependent Relatives
This is a weird one but - one of the stipulations of covering any dependent is that they cannot be married filing jointly, with one exception: if they are filing for the sole purpose of receiving a refund of payment of estimated taxes or withheld income taxes, but neither one would be required to file or have any income tax liability. I had realized a few weeks ago that I could cover my mother as an adult dependent, as I live with her and I am responsible for over 50% of her expenses. I went to file an amended return, however, I found out she filed a return with my father last year, jointly. Neither of them were required to file their taxes - their joint income was $155 (lol). They did it trying to get a refund, but they got no refund. However, they also didn't owe any taxes. they didn't receive any credits either. Does this disqualify me from covering my mother as a dependent? the examples the IRS give do not address this - they go over a similar scenario, where a dependent married and filing jointly files their taxes to claim a tax credit, which does disqualify those dependents, but that is because the purpose was to get an alternative credit, not a refund. My folks filed taxes because they hoped they would get a refund and when they saw they had $0 refund, thought they still had to file anyway and submitted it. it seems weird to disqualify them as dependents in that regard when neither were required to file a return and they owed and received nothing.
