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The foreign tax credit is intended to reduce the double tax burden that would otherwise arise when foreign source income is taxed by both the United States and the foreign country from which the income is derived.
Generally, only income taxes paid or accrued to a foreign country or a U.S. possession, or taxes paid or accrued to a foreign country or U.S. possession in lieu of an income tax, will qualify for the foreign tax credit.
You can choose to take the amount of any qualified foreign income taxes paid or accrued during the year as a foreign tax credit or as an itemized deduction.
To choose the deduction, you must itemize deductions on Form 1040, Schedule A. To choose the foreign tax credit you generally must complete Form 1116 and attach it to your Form 1040

To qualify for the Credit for the Elderly or Disabled, you must be age 65 or older or permanently and totally disabled and your income and nontaxable social security and other nontaxable pension benefits must be below specified amounts.
You may be able to take the Credit if:
You and/or your spouse are either 65 years or older; or under age 65 years old and are permanently and totally disabled. and your income on Form 1040 line 38 is less than $17,500, $20,000 (married filing jointly and only one spouse qualifies), $25,000 (married filing jointly and both qualify), or $12,500 (married filing separately and lived apart from your spouse for the entire year).
And, the non-taxable part of your Social Security or other nontaxable pensions, annuities or disability income is less than $5,000 (single, head of household, or qualifying widow/er with dependent child); $5,000 (married filing jointly and only one spouse qualifies); $7,500 (married filing jointly and both qualify); or $3,750 (married filing

You can include in the calculation of Medical itemized deductions as medical expenses subject to the 10% / 7.5% limitation the amount you paid for acupuncture.

A family Caregiver is defined as an unpaid relative that helps care for an elderly parent or relative as compared to a Professional Caregiver such as a Nurse's Aide that is paid to provide services.

A family Caregiver may qualify for various tax deductions and credits provide they meet certain criteria. You can take a parent or qualified relative as a dependent deduction on your tax return if certain tests are met including income and support. Secondly, a family caregiver may also be able to claim medical expenses they paid on behalf of their parent or relative as an itemized deduction on Schedule A of their tax return.

A Caregiver that can claim a parent or relative as a dependent may also be eligible for the Child & Dependent Care Credit .

Family Caregivers must make sure that the parent or relative they are claiming as a dependent deduction has not claimed themselves as a dependent on their own tax return or that no one else has claimed them. You cannot take a dependency deduction for anyone who has claimed themselves on their own tax return. Caregiver s should obtain a copy of the parent or relative’s tax return before filing their return .

In the case where there are siblings as shared caregivers of one elderly parent, , only one sibling can take the exemption for the parent. An agreement needs to be reached yearly as to which sibling will take the exemption on their return. The sibling taking the exemption will need to file Form 2120, Multiple Support Declaration, and have all of the other siblings sign the form claiming that they will not take the exemption on their own return.

Many Caregivers provide support and care for elderly parents who are cash poor but house/real estate rich.Caregivers who pay for the care of their parents monthly house and living expenses and medical costs including private nurses should consider treating these payments as loans securing the loan against the parent’s home, in the event the house is sold to pay for nursing home cost , they can recoup the monies they had advanced.

New for 2011, 2012 and 2013 is a concept named portability which allows a surviving spouse's estate to use any portion of the exemption amount not used by the other spouse’s estate.
For 2013 the exemption is $5,250.000.