For many years my wife(USA citizen) has been the primary source of income for my mexican mother-in-law that lives in mexico . She is not a "USA green card holder",etc. and has never been to the USA.She can not get a mexican passport because of a birth certificate foul-up. I tried to claim her as our dependent but the IRS threathened me with all kinds of red tape. They said I had to have someone such as an economics professor,etc. prove what the cost of living is in mexico. The USA embassy(consulate) had a social security office set up in Monterey to issue cards for I.D. purposes only in some cases. Anyone have any experience with this problem? Thanks for any advice. Jim.

Jim:

What the IRS wants is some sort of definitive proof that you are providing more than half of her total support. To do that, they need something to show what the cost of living in Mexico would be.

Try having a local university economics professor do the necessary research and publish a paper about the Mexican cost of living. Sounds like a good thesis project for a graduate student. You would have to pay him a fee for the paper, but once you have established this fact, you can then claim her as a dependent from Tax Year 2005 onward.