Do you live with someone who’s not your spouse? If your partner has little or no income, you might be able to claim a dependency exemption for him or her on your tax return. That exemption provides a $3,650 tax deduction in 2009.
To qualify, the couple must live together for the entire year, and the taxpayer claiming the deduction must furnish more than 50 percent of the other person’s support. The dependent’s income can’t top $3,650 this year; nontaxable income such as tax-exempt bond interest doesn’t count as income in this calculation.
Regardless of whether you claim your partner as a dependent, you can deduct the person’s medical expenses if you pay those bills for a person you support. The other person’s income doesn’t matter. Medical expenses are only deductible to the extent they exceed 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income so paying someone else’s bills may get you over that hurdle.
