visiting parents and dependents in tax filing

[Bharath786]

Dear Friends : I have couple of questions for my parents visit to USA. I am on H1-B visa.

Can we claim parents as dependents in taxes while filing ?

1. Can parents stay for 183 days maximum ?

2. If they stay for more than 180 days, can we claim them as dependents when we are filing for taxes

3. How many days exactly does it have to be to claim them as dependents.

Please suggest.

Thanks.

[smohanty]

How can visitors to a country be claimed to be dependents?

Especially if the parents file their taxes in India they certainly cannot be claimed as dependents here. Also if IRS determine the people you claim as dependents are not in fact qualified dependents then you will be in unbelievably big trouble.

More importantly all of this information will be studied during your green card processing and could lead to your application being rejected.

I would recommend you meet with a good CPA before you try such stunts.

But then again, if you add up the fees of a good CPA (< $250) and the price of extending your parents visa (so they can legally stay the extra number of days) you will not be able to save much by claiming them as dependents.

[Bharath786]

Thanks Mohanty.

I was trying to see if its a common practice and whether its feasible or not.