Question:
B”H
Kavod haRav,
Thank you for your help. An adult child contributes funds toward the upkeep of the home that they live in with a parent. The child has recently helped the parent with several tasks and purchased several things for the parent, and the parent wants to do something nice for them. The parent told them to not contribute two months worth of expenses towards the upkeep of the home as a form of thank you. (The child emphasized that to avoid any issue of ribbis, let the nice things the child bought/did for the parent be a stand alone, and if the parent wants to do something nice for the child, that can be a stand alone, but that the child does not want the monthly expenses waived to “cover the cost” of what the child paid for/did…the parent explained that they wanted to waive those monthly expenses as something nice because I was on a different work schedule for summer and the added money would probably be appreciated.) May the child accept this waiver from the parent or is there any issue of ribbis? (Background information: 1. Parent is the majority owner in a company that authorized that company to lend a modest amount of money to the child’s own company. Would keeping the waived money from the parent be problematic due to this? I should emphasize that the loan was from company to company…)
Thanks
Answer:
Hello,
The loan from company to company has no bearing on this question.
Regarding your question, it is permitted for your parents to give you the monetary break, and it is not a problem of receiving ribbis. The reason is because the present that your parents ae giving you it is not only for the money laid out for the purchases, rather also for the work that was involved in the tasks that you did. Additionally, when a parent gives a child extra because they laid out some money, it is not viewed as being given for the loan, rather because parents often give their children gifts and money. Therefore, you do not have to be concerned, with getting the break on the monthly contribution.
Best wishes
