My Mom is new immigrant. I would like to know how to file taxes for her. she does not make any money but take care of my kids.

As long as your mom is a US resident( I mean a US citizen. US green card holder), then you can claim her as your dependent on your return as long as you meet certain requirements: in order to claim your mother, it doesn't really make a difference if she lived with you or not. What matters is support and income. For 2012, if she had more than $3.8K gross income, you can not claim her regardless of anything else. Gross Income is all "taxable" income in the form of money, property, or services. However, as you said, she had no gross income as she didn’t make any money; ALSO you must provide over 1/2 of her support. Support includes the fair market value of the lodging you provide for her. What you need to do is figure out how much she would have paid you to live in your place, plus all of her out-of-pocket costs such as food, clothing, entertainment, medicine, doctors, etc. If you provide over 1/2 of this total, you can claim her. To claim your mother on your income taxes, you have to use Form 1040A or Form 1040 to file your taxes. The amount that you save on your taxes varies depending on your tax rate. The higher your tax rate, the greater your savings. For example, if you fall in the 27 percent tax bracket and the value of the exemption for your mother equals $3,800, you would save $1.026 on your income taxes. ALSO, your mom can't be filing a married filing joint return unless it is to claim a refund; Your mother is not your qualifying child, but she may be your qualifying relative

Thanks,

I will file my mom's taxes with my taxes as dependent.

One more question.

I would like to know if I can claim transportation charges. I use one car exclusively for work only.We have 2 cars and me and my wife use one car work (as we car pool) and other car for rest of the chores.

what is the best way to claim car expense for this purpose.


thanks
A

“I would like to know if I can claim transportation charges. I use one car exclusively for work only.We have 2 cars and me and my wife use one car work (as we car pool) and other car for rest of the chores. “==========>As you can see, in general, For or most of us the cost of commuting between home and work is NOT a deductible expense. Although commuting costs are not deductible, some local transportation expenses are. Deductible local transportation expenses include the ordinary and necessary expenses of going from one workplace (away from the residence) to another. But some lucky folks are indeed able to do this. If you're self-employed/ a contractor(or as an EE, If you have an office in your home that you use as your principal place of business for your employer) with a home office, then you just might be able to write off the cost of traveling between your residence and any other location where you conducted work-related business.To take advantage of this tax break on your 2012 return, you must have a home office that qualifies for write-offs because it was your "principal place of business." This means that your home office was used regularly and exclusively as the scene for most of your income-earning activities last year. Alternatively, it would also qualify as your principal place of business if it was used regularly and exclusively for management and administrative functions provided you didn't make substantial use of any other fixed location for such activities last year. (Administrative and management activities are things like preparing client proposals and invoices, strategic planning, market research, keeping up with professional literature and so forth.)

“what is the best way to claim car expense for this purpose.”========> As described above.

AS I mentioned before that My mom is new Immigrant.

She cam to us in Nov 2011. I filed her green card in March 2012 and got her GC in Feb 2013. She has live all 2012 with me. So I will file her as my dependent. Can I claim her moving expense as she came in Nov 2011 and I paid for ticket etc.

She cam to us in Nov 2011. I filed her green card in March 2012 and got her GC in Feb 2013. She has live all 2012 with me. So I will file her as my dependent. “========>Correct; as said, to be claimed as your dependent by you, your mother doesn’t have to live you with for more than half the year. So, your mother is your dependent on you for tax purposes if mother’s income is below a threshold , $3.8K fo r 2012,and you are responsible for the majority of your mother’s expenses. To claim your mother as a dependent, you must provide at least half of her financial support. This can include food and medical costs, and if the person is living with you, a reasonable percentage of the household's expenditures such as mortgage rent or utilities.

“Can I claim her moving expense as she came in Nov 2011 and I paid for ticket etc.”==========>I don’t think so as your mother was NOT your dependent in 2011 when she moved into US. You didn’t provide at least half of her support and she was not a US resident(or a citizen/resident of Canada/Mexico) in 2011.I guess she was a non resident alien in 2011 as you said.

Yes very true i agree with Wnhough.....
He is very right...