You may be able to claim a parent as a dependent if you and one or more siblings provide over half of that parent’s support. In that case, you can use a multiple support agreement to claim your parent as a dependent. Participating siblings can decide who’ll claim the exemption each year.
The taxpayer taking the exemption must contribute more than 10 percent of the parent’s support. That taxpayer can claim the exemption by filing Form 2120 with his or her federal income tax return, signed by all the eligible parties.
However, high-income taxpayers lose most or all of the value from dependency exemptions, which phase out as adjusted gross income (AGI) tops certain thresholds. Thus, the dependency exemption should be taken by someone whose AGI is under $210,000 on a joint return this year, or under $140,000 as a single filer. Such taxpayers can get the maximum benefit.
