I live in CA. My father is on Social Security and earns approx 1,200 a month. He lives with me, and I pay for mostly everything. My rent isn't covered with his check! Can I claim him? And if I do... will that make him pay anything? I don't want him to end up paying taxes for my fault... I'm just trying to save money!

Yes, you CAN claim him if you provide more than HALF of his total support.

List him as a dependent, and file as Head of Household. If Social Security is his ONLY source of income, he has NO LEGAL REQUIREMENT to file a tax return, and the IRS will NOT question your return.

Further, if you have been provining over half of his support since 1 January 2005, you should go back and amend your 2005, 2006 and 2007 tax returns to add him as a dependent to those returns as well.

It is too late to amend any return prior to 2005 due to the 3-year statute of limitations, and you need to amend the 2005 return no later than 15 April 2009.