Do I qualify to claim parents as depenents?

[jeffmacswan]

This question relates to 2020 taxes (planning ahead). My wife's parents 

(1) live with us full-time;

(2) file as married filing jointly;

(3) received taxable income (IRA disbursements) of $8595;

(4) have zero tax liability due to medical deductions

Can we claim them both as dependents on our taxes? Here's why I think we can; please let me know if I'm wrong. They are filing taxes only to get a refund of any prepaid taxes and report income, but have zero tax liability. Each one earned less than $4300, the earning threshold to qualify as a dependent. (So I'm dividing their joint IRA income by 2, getting $4299 each.) Any issues?

[macuser_22]

It does not work that way.   There is no such thing as a joint IRA.   The "I" in IRA is "individual".    The 1099-R income applies to the person whose name and SSN is on the 1099-R.   The dependent test of gross income applies to each separately and is "gross income", not tax liability on a tax return.

[Anonymous]

doesn't matter, you have to look at each parent's gross income if over $4250, for 2020, they don't qualify