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Tax Deductions for Medical Expenses

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Can You Claim Tax Deductions for Medical Expenses?

It may interest you to learn that you can indeed claim itemized deductions for medical expenses. This often comes as a surprise to many people, which means that there may be millions of dollars of medical deductions every year going unclaimed. Fortunately, now that you know this, you need never make this kind of mistake again.

What Medical Expenses Can You Claim as Tax Deductions?

Medical care can be deducted for you, your spouse and any dependents providing that that medical care was for prevention or relief of a specific mental or physical illness or defect. Qualifying medical care includes diagnosis, treatment, mitigation, cure or prevention of disease, or treatments which affect a body structure or function. Prescription drugs are also deductible, except for insulin. Qualifying medical expenses for deduction encompass fees paid to doctors, surgeons, chiropractors, psychologists, psychiatrists, Christian Science practitioners and dentists, as well as payment for hospital services, long-term care and nursing services and laboratory fees. Rehab and acupuncture are also deductible. Medical items such as prescription glasses, wheelchairs, crutches, hearing aids and seeing-eye dogs are deductible as well.

What’s the Catch?

The catch is that the amount of your medical expenses must exceed a certain amount, based on your income, before you can begin to deduct them. Currently, this amount is 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. This means that if you have dedicated 10 percent of your salary during the year to medical expenses, you can deduct 2.5 percent of your total qualifying medical bills. If you have dedicated five percent of your salary to medical expenses, you can deduct nothing. You also cannot deduct life insurance premiums or premiums paid by your employer as part of your work-related health plan. This is why it is important to document every medical expense you incur from the beginning of the year, whether you expect to be able to deduct them at the end or not. These expenses add up and you just may find you have a deduction after all, especially if a serious medical problem crops up suddenly.

How Can You Learn More About Medical Expenses and Tax Deductions?

You can find out more about what medical and dental expenses can be deducted, how, and why, by consulting the IRS’s Publication 502: Medical and Dental Expenses. This document outlines all of the included medical expenses and provides additional information about medical expense deductions as well. The publication can be easily accessed over the Internet at the IRS website.

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