Two different issues---



1. Gift tax



If you gave your parents money( The simple way is to write each parent a
check...), the amount you gave to EACH parent should under the annual limit
($12K in 2007) . Otherwise you must report the total gifts to IRS and you might
have to pay tax on the gifts.

Please note: You don't need to report the gift to IRS
when your gift is under the annual limit. Nor don’t you have any income tax
benefit("deduction") on the gift amount...

( 通常annual gift tax exemption 多用来做estate
planning的...)



The person who receives your gift doesn’t need report the gift to IRS or pay
gift or income tax on its value in US... ( <--- A gift..)  I don't know
about the tax treatment in .




2. Claim an exemption for a dependent in the income tax return

In your case, you would like to claim them as
dependents. General speaking, in order to claim a dependent, it requires 5
tests( ALL MET)

• Income
  test --- the dependent must receive less than a certain amount in
  gross  income. ( check Publication 17 every year for the amount
  limitation.)
• Support
  test --- the dependent must receive over half of the support from the
  taxpayer. (again, there is a chart in Publication 17 for you to calculate
  if the support test is met.)
• Joint
  return test --- the dependent must not file a joint return...
• Citizen/resident
  test--- the dependent  has to be a
  citizen/resident,  or a resident of
  or ..
  
• Member
  of household or Relationship test---  usually the dependent must live
  with you all year. But there is a list of relatives who don't have to live
  with you and you can claim them as dependents. Your parents fall into this
  list....

Please go to IRS and download Publication 17 ,

Part One  The Income Tax Return ---> section 3
" personal exemption and dependents" 

Last, 当你遇到任何federal income tax  问题,
我建议你每年到IRS 下载publication 17...很多正确的答案都这里开始...

[此贴子已经被作者于2007-5-2 18:55:56编辑过]