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We moved mom into an assisted living facility close to her home. It is 50 miles round trip. I have to go twice a week to check on her. I do her laundry, take her to run errands, handle all her finances, deal with the hospice and care givers. Can I get reimbursed for my mileage expenses? It is really starting to add up.

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If mom has assets, then spend some of her money to go and see an elder care attorney to draw up a personal services contract between mom and your or mom and whomever for payment for your management of her affairs. This is usually based on community standards for payment ceilings and the attorney will know. Mom will 1099 you on this and you will pay taxes - this is a job and income and taxable and can also build up 1/4 towards your SS retirement. If you have skills or specialized education (like you are a broker or CPA or health professional), then you can "bill" mom whatever is a competitive rate for your profession, so if your day rate for what you do professionally is $ 900 a day, then your hourly rate is $ 112.50 hr. Otherwise you are kinda limited to what what a low wage caregiver is paid, about $ 18 hr. The attorney will know how to structure this so that it is totally legal and can pass a Medicaid review if you end up having to apply for Medicaid to pay for mom's care later on, even years from now.

Mileage and other direct expenses should be reimbursed at actual costs. For mileage, if you are doing this as a personal services contract (a business) the federal rate for mileage for 2012 is .555. If you don't go the personal services contract route, then you can deduct your mileage from your taxes at .22 for medical and .14 for other charitable mileage.

Also mom needs to pay the attorney from her funds. If you pay & you benefit, other family members could (later on) challenge this as a coerced action.
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