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My son is blind he lives in my house do i need to report rent from his ssdi check if i dont need to charge him?

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Which Social Security Administration “income” program he is on will make a difference as to whether or not charging him rent is best.

SSA acronym’s for their 3 main programs often get muddled. So that being said, is he on 1. SSI aka Social Security Supplemental Income? Or 2. SSDI aka Social Security Disability Income? Or 3. Social Security Retirement Benefits Income? It matters and big time.

As far as I’m aware neither SSDI or SSRBI have any restrictions as to how the $ is spent.
HOWEVER, SSI aka Social Security Supplemental Income does!

If SSI, that program is the one that Federally pays a max of $944 a month to an eligible individual who has never been able to work or their work history & into FICA payments is so small, that they have no work based income to do SSDI or SS Retirement income. My answer below is based on him being on SSI…..

If your son is in SSI, yes this program has lots -LOTS- of restrictions. Big one is IF the friend or family that they live with is providing them shelter / room & board rent free that is considered “In Kind Support & Maintenance” with a Presumptive Value of $351.33 a mo. Once that is a determination by SSA, their $944 check will be reduced by $351.33. So they get only $592.67 mo. If your son is on SSI, realistically you do not want that to happen…… so you charge him like $375/$400 rent. It’s in line with the PV of $351.33 but not too too much out of his spending $. It needs to be a real & done every month paid by him to you for “rent”.

SSI has other In-Kind deductibles ….. like if someone (other than a landlord or property owner who includes utilities) pays their electric bill, means a reduction of benefits as it is in the “In Kind” list. But if someone pays their cell phone bill, it’s not included in the “In Kind” list. It can get real in the weeds deciphering; so just doing a basic rent is easiest. A lot of those on SSI live in congregate or communal housing, which tend to become their rep payee for SS and take a fixed amount in the $500/$700 range from the $944 for “shelter” and they get a debit card for the difference they can freely spend.

But I digress, what you do with the rent $ is for you to determine. What often is a good plan is IF he & his disability meets the requirements for him doing an ABLE bank account, that once that rent $ builds up in your own personal bank account to a few thousand $ is for him to open an ABLE using that $ “gifted” to him by you. And over time, he gets other gift$ that they too go into the AbLE account. ABLE is excluded as a countable resource / asset for SSI.

if he meets the criteria to open an ABLE, personally I’d get him to do this. It can build up over time and be $ he can on his own use to get things that his small income could never. ABLE has a max allowed per year (20K) & max value (100K). Is totally excluded as a countable resource for programs, like SSI. It will be there as $ for him to rely on if family or friends are not.

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If you are asking about the tax implications on the $ you get paid from him for rent, that is something to discuss with a CPA or other tax pro. What your own tax bracket & income & assets, etc factor into whether or not a few hundred extra each mo matters.
Helpful Answer (2)
Reply to igloo572
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You need to clarify your question. You "don't need to charge him" rent but DO you? If he's paying rent you need to report it as income, yes.
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Reply to lealonnie1
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Why would you report rent when you don't charge him? If he only receives SSD, he may not have to pay income taxes if he makes under a certain amount of SSD and has no other income.
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Reply to JoAnn29
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