Qualifying Relative

We’ve all got that one random family member that we really wish we weren’t related to. Like Uncle Reuben with his creepy taxidermy collection. Or our cousin Madison, the Instagram influencer who is physically unable to eat a meal without taking (and posting) at least ten pictures of it first. But as Mom always said, we can pick our nose, but we can’t pick our family. It’s not up to us to determine who qualifies as a relative of ours.

When it comes to the IRS, however, the rules about qualifying relatives are a little different. According to them, a “qualifying relative” is someone related to us, either by blood or by marriage, that meets these criteria: they live in our home, they make less than $4,150 per year (as of 2018), we pay at least half of their financial expenses, and no one else is claiming them as a dependent on their taxes. If we’ve got a qualifying relative at our place, we can claim them as a dependent on our taxes and receive a nice little tax deduction.

We’ll try and remind ourselves of this monetary bonus the next time Madison insists on snapping a hundred pics of our morning bowl of Froot Loops.