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We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence.
Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover.
How We Make Money.
The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you.
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Dear Tax Talk,
An individual has a live-in health care worker for which room and board is provided. Does the health care worker have to claim the room and board as income? And can she be considered head of household, for she has a qualifying dependent child? — Rick
Dear Rick,
Meals and lodging provided to a home worker for the convenience of the employer are not considered income of the worker. Basically, convenience means that the employee is required to be on duty during their meal and rest period. Typical examples of such workers are hospital workers, restaurant staff, offshore oil workers, flight crew, etc. Similarly, if the worker was invited to a restaurant by her employer, this would not be considered income.
Head of household status would not be affected by her employment as a health care worker. However, she could not use her employer’s home as a basis of determining if she maintained a home for her dependent during the year. That is, to be considered head of household, your worker needs to pay more than half the cost of maintaining a home for her dependent child. The home where she works would not be considered a home that she maintains.
Ask the adviser
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