Can I Claim My Parent as a Dependent?

Claiming a parent as a dependent on your tax return can lower your overall tax liability, but it is not an automatic privilege. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has established a clear set of criteria that must be met before you can claim this tax benefit.

For tax purposes, a dependent is someone who relies on you for financial support, and the IRS provides a framework to measure that reliance.

The Qualifying Relative Tests

For a parent to be claimed as your dependent, they must meet the criteria of a “Qualifying Relative” by passing four distinct tests from the IRS. Failing even one of these tests means you cannot claim your parent.

The first is the Not a Qualifying Child Test, which means your parent cannot be your qualifying child or the qualifying child of any other taxpayer. The second is the Relationship Test, which a biological parent, stepparent, or parent-in-law automatically meets.

The third is the Gross Income Test, which requires your parent’s income to be below a specific threshold. The final requirement is the Support Test, which mandates that you provide more than half of your parent’s total support for the year.

Calculating Your Parent’s Gross Income

To satisfy the Gross Income Test, you must understand what the IRS includes in the calculation. Gross income is all income a person receives as money, goods, property, and services that is not tax-exempt. Exceeding the annual limit, which is $5,050 for the 2024 tax year, will disqualify your parent.

Included in this calculation are earnings from wages, salaries, and self-employment, along with interest, dividends, and rents. The taxable portion of pensions and retirement account distributions also counts toward the gross income limit.

It is also important to know what is not included. The non-taxable portion of Social Security benefits is excluded. Other common exclusions are tax-exempt interest from municipal bonds, gifts, and inheritances received by your parent.

Determining More Than Half Support

The Support Test requires a detailed comparison of the support you provided versus the total support your parent received from all sources. To pass this test, the value of the support you provided must be greater than 50% of the total. Support includes the total amount spent to provide for your parent’s needs, such as food, clothing, lodging, and out-of-pocket medical and dental care expenses. It also covers costs for education, recreation, and transportation.

A significant component of support is lodging. If your parent lives with you, you must calculate the fair rental value of the room or part of the house they occupy. Fair rental value is the amount you could expect to receive from a stranger for the same lodging, including a proportional share of utilities.

To determine if you provided more than half, you must also calculate the parent’s total support for the year. This includes any funds your parent used for their own support, even if the source is non-taxable, like Social Security benefits. For example, if you provided $15,000 in support and your parent used $10,000 of their own Social Security benefits for living expenses, their total support is $25,000. In this case, your $15,000 contribution exceeds the 50% threshold, and you would meet the Support Test.

Multiple Support Agreements

When financial responsibility for a parent is shared among multiple children and no single person provides more than half of the support, a Multiple Support Agreement may be used. This allows the group to designate one person to claim the parent as a dependent, provided the group collectively paid for more than 50% of the parent’s total support.

To use this provision, the individual who will claim the dependent must have personally provided more than 10% of the parent’s total support. Every other person who contributed more than 10% must agree in writing not to claim the parent as a dependent for that tax year. This formal agreement is documented on IRS Form 2120, Multiple Support Declaration, which the person claiming the dependent must file with their tax return.

Tax Benefits of Claiming a Parent

Claiming your parent as a dependent provides several tax benefits. The Credit for Other Dependents is a nonrefundable credit that can reduce your tax liability. For the 2024 tax year, this credit is worth up to $500 for each qualifying dependent, provided the parent is a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or U.S. resident alien.

Claiming a parent can also enable you to use the more advantageous Head of Household filing status. To qualify, you must be unmarried and pay for more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year. Your parent does not need to live with you, as long as you pay for more than half the cost of maintaining their main home for the entire year. This filing status offers a higher standard deduction and lower tax rates than the Single filing status.

You may also be able to deduct medical expenses you paid for your parent. If you itemize deductions, you can include these costs with your own medical expenses for expenses exceeding 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). An exception allows you to include medical expenses for a parent who would have qualified as your dependent but failed the Gross Income Test, as long as you still met the Support Test.