A Guide to Claiming Tax Breaks if Your Parent Is a Dependent

Do you pay over half the cost of supporting a parent? If so, he or she is considered your dependent for federal income tax purposes — which may qualify you for significant tax breaks. Here are the details.

Credit for a Dependent Parent

Through 2025, your dependent parent may qualify you for a $500 tax credit under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The credit is available for dependents who aren't children under age 17. (Child dependents under 17 qualify for a Child Tax Credit.)

Your parent must pass a gross income test to qualify as your dependent for the $500 credit. You must also pay over half of your parent's support.

A dependent parent passes the gross income test for 2024 if he or she has gross income of $5,050 or less. For purposes of the gross income test, you can ignore any tax-free Social Security benefits. However, those tax-free benefits must be considered in determining whether you pay over half of your parent's support.  

For example, suppose you're unmarried, and your widowed mother lives in her own home. In 2024, you pay over half the support for your mother, and you pay over half the cost of maintaining her principal home for the year.

Her gross income consists of $12,000 of tax-free Social Security benefits and $300 of interest income, all of which she uses for her support. Your mother passes that test because the Social Security benefits are ignored for the gross income test.

Thus, for 2024, your mother qualifies as your dependent for purposes of claiming the $500 credit. Plus, because you're single and pay over half the annual cost of maintaining her home, she qualifies you for the favorable head of household (HOH) status.

Deduction for Paying a Parent's Medical Expenses

For 2024, you can claim an itemized deduction for medical expenses paid for you, your spouse and your dependents to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). AGI includes all taxable income items. Certain write-offs, such as deductible IRA contributions, may reduce AGI.  

While clearing the 10%-of-AGI hurdle can be difficult, it may be much less difficult if you pay significant medical expenses for a dependent parent. You must pay over half of your parent's support for your parent to be your dependent for medical expense deduction purposes. However, the gross income test isn't applicable when determining whether a parent is your dependent for medical expense deduction purposes.

Necessary: To claim deductions for a dependent parent's medical expenses, you must directly pay medical service providers. Simply reimbursing your parent for expenses that he or she paid won't get you a deduction.

For itemized medical expense deduction purposes, your dependent parent's medical expenses can include (but are not limited to) the following expenses that you directly pay:

• Health insurance premiums,
• Out-of-pocket medical costs, including insurance co-payments, deductibles, and expenditures for dental and vision care, and
• Qualified long-term care (LTC) insurance premiums.

Premiums for qualified LTC insurance policies also count as medical expenses for itemized deduction purposes, subject to the age-based limits. For each covered person, count the lesser of: 1) the premiums paid, or 2) the applicable age-based limit. The age-based premium limits are:

2024 Age-Based LTC Premium Caps

To determine whether you incurred enough medical expenses to claim an itemized deduction, add all the qualifying medical expenses for you, your spouse and your dependents — including your dependent parent, if applicable. To itemize, your total itemized deductions must exceed your allowable standard deduction.

For 2024, the following standard deduction amounts generally apply:

• $14,600 for single filers,
• $21,900 for heads of households, and
• $29,200 for married couples who file jointly.

Need More Information?

Providing financial support for a parent can qualify you for some well-deserved tax breaks. If you have questions or want more information, contact your tax advisor.

Single Taxpayers May Qualify for HOH Filing Status

For unmarried individuals, a common — and expensive — error is filing as a single taxpayer when head of household (HOH) filing status is allowed. Compared to single filers, HOH filers are entitled to wider tax brackets and bigger standard deductions. So, using HOH filing status can save significant taxes.

If you're unmarried and pay over half the cost of maintaining your dependent parent's principal home for the year, you can use beneficial HOH filing status based on your dependent parent. There's no requirement for you and your dependent parent to live in the same household.

To be treated as your dependent for HOH filing status eligibility purposes, your parent must pass a gross income test and you must pay over half of his or her support. (See main article.)