[Hugin]

I don't think so. To be tax deductable it would have to go to a legal charity. And you can't get around that by setting up a charity to benefit your family.

You can give each of your parents (or anyone else) up to $10k as a gift and it will not be taxed as income to them (that doesn't change whether it's taxable to you). If you're married your wife could also give them each 10k. So you could give them up to 40k per year without it being taxable income to them.

BTW, I'm not a tax advisor, but some years ago I worked in the insurace biz, and learned a lot about this stuff. Still, check it out with a real tax advisor to make sure things haven't changed.

[DeaconBenjamin]

To be tax deductable it would have to go to a legal charity. I'm not saying you suggested such a thing, however, IMHO it is always a bad idea to give money to a charity with the intent that a family member benefit from your gift.

[Pepper's_Paw]

The amount that may be given to anyone this year is 11K.

[tet68]

You are right, My mother gave my sister,brother and I such a gift. we paid no tax but she ended up paying almost $7000 in tax.

[the bottle let me down]

At least one thing has changed--the annual gift exclusion is not $11,000 (increased for inflation).

I'm not aware of any way to give money to family that results in a deduction against current income (which is what I understood the question to be), but then I'm not a tax advisor.