What Expenses Can You Include?

You can include only the medical and dental expenses you paid this year, regardless of when the services were provided. (But see Decedent, later, for an exception.) If you pay medical expenses by check, the day you mail or deliver the check generally is the date of payment. If you use a "pay-by-phone" or "on-line" account to pay your medical expenses, the date reported on the statement of the financial institution showing when payment was made is the date of payment. You can include medical expenses you charge to your credit card in the year the charge is made. It does not matter when you actually pay the amount charged.

When do you include a decedent’s medical expenses? Medical expenses for a decedent that are paid from his or her estate are treated as paid at the time the medical services were provided if they are paid within the one-year period beginning with the day after the date of death. See Decedent , later.

Medical expenses paid before death by the decedent are included in figuring any deduction for medical and dental expenses on the decedent’s final income tax return. This includes expenses for the decedent’s spouse and dependents as well as for the decedent.

Qualified medical expenses paid before death by the decedent are not deductible if paid with a tax-free distribution from any medical savings account or Medicare+Choice savings account.

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