My parents (not U.S. citizen or resident) visited U.S. for a month for medical treatment, can I claim the expenses I paid for their medical treatment in the deduction?

[kevinadol]

The deduction here is for the Federal tax.
My parents received the medical treatment in a U.S. hospital.
My parents are neither U.S. citizen nor U.S. resident, they are not living with me.
I am living in U.S. .

[MayaD]

You can deduct your parent's medical expenses even if they do not meet the income requirement to be claimed as your dependent if you provided more that half of their support.

[kevinadol]

Hi MayaD,

Thank you for the updates. I got a few more questions:

1. I paid more than half of their medical expense in U.S. . Do I also need to provide more than half of their other expenses (e.g., living expense outside U.S.) to deduct my parent's medical expenses in my tax return?

2. If my parents are NOT U.S. resident (they are living outside U.S., and they are not U.S. citizen), can I deduct my parent's medical expenses in my tax return?

Thank you for your time and help.

[Vanessa A · Accepted solution]

Yes, you would have to pay over half of their overall support in order to claim their medical expenses on your tax return. 

Where do they live?  If they live outside the North America, you cannot claim them as a dependent or claim their medical expenses on your return. You can only claim a US Citizen, US Resident, a Resident of Canada or Mexico or a US national on your return.

[kevinadol]

Hi Vanessa A,

Thank you for the updates. How many days do my parents have to stay in U.S. to be considered as a U.S. resident?

Thank you for your time and help. 

[Vanessa A]

They would have to meet the  Substantial Presence Test which is 183 days, so if they were only in the US for one month, this would not be long enough. 

 However, if they were here long enough to be US residents, then they would have to file a tax return claiming all income from all sources and pay taxes on it.