Publication 502 |
2000 Tax Year |
What Medical Expenses Are Deductible?
Following is a list of items that you can include in
figuring your medical expense deduction. The items are listed in
alphabetical order.
Abortion
You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for a legal
abortion.
Acupuncture
You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for
acupuncture.
Alcoholism
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for an
inpatient's treatment at a therapeutic center for alcohol addiction.
This includes meals and lodging provided by the center during
treatment.
You can also include in medical expenses transportation costs you
pay to attend meetings of an Alcoholics Anonymous Club in your
community if your attendance is pursuant to medical advice that
membership in the Alcoholics Anonymous Club is necessary for the
treatment of a disease involving the excessive use of alcoholic
liquors.
Ambulance
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for ambulance
service.
Artificial Limb
You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for an
artificial limb.
Artificial Teeth
You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for
artificial teeth.
Autoette
See Wheelchair, later.
Birth Control Pills
You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for birth
control pills prescribed by a doctor.
Braille Books and Magazines
You can include in medical expenses the part of the cost of Braille
books and magazines for use by a visually-impaired person that is more
than the cost of regular printed editions.
Capital Expenses
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for special
equipment installed in your home, or for improvements, if their main
purpose is medical care for you, your spouse, or a dependent. The cost
of permanent improvements that increase the value of the property may
be partly included as a medical expense. The cost of the improvement
is reduced by the increase in the value of the property. The
difference is a medical expense. If the value of the property is not
increased by the improvement, the entire cost is included as a medical
expense.
Certain improvements made to accommodate your home to your disabled
condition, or that of your spouse or your dependents who live with
you, do not usually increase the value of the home and the cost can be
included in full as medical expenses. These improvements include, but
are not limited to, the following items.
- Constructing entrance or exit ramps for your home.
- Widening doorways at entrances or exits to your home.
- Widening or otherwise modifying hallways and interior
doorways.
- Installing railings, support bars, or other modifications to
bathrooms.
- Lowering or modifying kitchen cabinets and equipment.
- Moving or modifying electrical outlets and fixtures.
- Installing porch lifts and other forms of lifts but
generally not elevators.
- Modifying fire alarms, smoke detectors, and other warning
systems.
- Modifying stairways.
- Adding handrails or grab bars anywhere (whether or not in
bathrooms).
- Modifying hardware on doors.
- Modifying areas in front of entrance and exit
doorways.
- Grading the ground to provide access to the
residence.
Only reasonable costs to accommodate a home to a disabled condition
are considered medical care. Additional costs for personal motives,
such as for architectural or aesthetic reasons, are not medical
expenses.
Capital expense work chart.
Use the following chart to figure the amount of your capital
expense to include in your medical expenses.
1. |
Enter amount
you paid for the improvement. |
$ |
2. |
Enter increase
in value of your home. If line 2 is equal to or more than line 1,
you have no deduction. Stop here. If not, go on to line 3. |
|
3. |
Subtract line
2 from line 1. This is your medical expense. |
$ |
Example.
You have a heart ailment. On your doctor's advice, you install an
elevator in your home so that you will not have to climb stairs. The
elevator costs $8,000. An appraisal shows that the elevator increases
the value of your home by $4,400. You figure your medical expense like
this:
1. |
Enter amount you paid for the improvement. |
$8,000 |
2. |
Enter increase in value
of your home. If line 2 is equal to or more than line 1, you have
no deduction. Stop here. If not, go on to line 3. |
$4,400 |
3. |
Subtract line 2 from line 1. This is your medical
expense. |
$3,600 |
Operation and upkeep.
Amounts you pay for operation and upkeep of a capital asset qualify
as medical expenses, as long as the main reason for them is medical
care. This is so even if none or only part of the original cost of the
capital asset qualified as a medical care expense.
Example.
If, in the previous example, the elevator increased the value of
your home by $8,000, you would have no medical expense for the cost of
the elevator. However, the cost of electricity to operate the elevator
and any costs to maintain it are medical expenses as long as the
medical reason for the elevator exists.
Improvements to property rented by a person with a
disability.
Amounts paid by a person with a disability to buy and install
special plumbing fixtures, mainly for medical reasons, in a rented
house are medical expenses.
Example.
John has arthritis and a heart condition. He cannot climb stairs or
get into a bathtub. On his doctor's advice, he installs a bathroom
with a shower stall on the first floor of his two-story rented house.
The landlord did not pay any of the cost of buying and installing the
special plumbing and did not lower the rent. John can include in
medical expenses the entire amount he paid.
Car
You can include in medical expenses the cost of special hand
controls and other special equipment installed in a car for the use of
a person with a disability.
Special design.
You can include in medical expenses the difference in the cost of a
car specially designed to hold a wheelchair and a regular car.
Cost of operation.
You cannot deduct the cost of operating a specially equipped car,
except as discussed under Transportation, later.
Chiropractor
You can include in medical expenses fees you pay to a chiropractor
for medical care.
Christian Science
Practitioner
You can include in medical expenses fees you pay to Christian
Science practitioners for medical care.
Contact Lenses
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for contact
lenses needed for medical reasons. You can also include the cost of
equipment and materials required for using contact lenses, such as
saline solution and enzyme cleaner. See also Eyeglasses and
Laser Eye Surgery, later.
Crutches
You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay to buy or
rent crutches.
Dental Treatment
You can include in medical expenses the amounts you pay for dental
treatment. This includes fees paid to dentists for X-rays, fillings,
braces, extractions, dentures, etc.
Drug Addiction
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for an
inpatient's treatment at a therapeutic center for drug addiction. This
includes meals and lodging at the center during treatment.
Drugs
See Medicines, later.
Eyeglasses
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for eyeglasses
and contact lenses needed for medical reasons. You can also include
fees paid for eye examinations.
Fertility Enhancement
You can include in medical expenses the cost of the following
procedures to overcome your inability to have children.
- Procedures such as in vitro fertilization
(including temporary storage of eggs or sperm).
- Surgery, including an operation to reverse prior surgery
that prevents you from having children.
Founder's Fee
See Lifetime Care--Advance Payments, later.
Guide Dog or
Other Animal
You can include in medical expenses the cost of a guide dog or
other animal to be used by a visually-impaired or hearing-impaired
person. You can also include the cost of a dog or other animal trained
to assist persons with other physical disabilities. Amounts you pay
for the care of these specially trained animals are also medical
expenses.
Health Institute
You can include in medical expenses fees you pay for treatment at a
health institute only if the treatment is prescribed by a physician
and the physician issues a statement that the treatment is necessary
to alleviate a physical or mental defect or illness of the individual
receiving the treatment.
Health Maintenance
Organization (HMO)
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay to entitle you,
or your spouse (if filing a joint return), or a dependent to receive
medical care from a health maintenance organization. These amounts are
treated as medical insurance premiums. See Insurance
Premiums, later.
Hearing Aids
You can include in medical expenses the cost of a hearing aid and
the batteries you buy to operate it.
Home Care
See Nursing Services, later.
Hospital Services
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for the cost of
inpatient care at a hospital or similar institution if the main reason
for being there is to receive medical care. This includes amounts paid
for meals and lodging. Also see Lodging, later.
Insurance Premiums
You can include in medical expenses insurance premiums you pay for
policies that cover medical care. Policies can provide payment for:
- Hospitalization, surgical fees, X-rays, etc.,
- Prescription drugs,
- Replacement of lost or damaged contact lenses, or
- Membership in an association that gives cooperative or
so-called "free-choice" medical service, or group hospitalization
and clinical care.
- Qualified long-term care insurance contracts (subject to
additional limitations). See Long-Term Care Contracts, Qualified
in Publication 502.
You cannot deduct insurance premiums paid with pretax
dollars because the premiums are not included in box 1 of your Form
W-2.
If you have a policy that provides more than one kind of payment,
you can include the premiums for the medical care part of the policy
if the charge for the medical part is reasonable. The cost of the
medical part must be separately stated in the insurance contract or
given to you in a separate statement.
Employer-sponsored health insurance plan.
Do not include in your medical and dental expenses on Schedule A
(Form 1040) any insurance premiums paid by an employer-sponsored
health insurance plan unless the premiums are included in box 1 of
your Form W-2. Also, do not include on Schedule A (Form 1040)
any other medical and dental expenses paid by the plan unless the
amount paid is included in box 1 of your Form W-2.
Flexible spending arrangement.
Contributions made by your employer to provide coverage for
qualified long-term care services under a flexible spending or similar
arrangement must be included in your income. This amount will be
reported as wages in box 1 of your Form W-2.
Medicare A.
If you are covered under social security (or if you are a
government employee who paid Medicare tax), you are enrolled in
Medicare A. The payroll tax paid for Medicare A is not a medical
expense. If you are not covered under social security (or were not a
government employee who paid Medicare tax), you can voluntarily enroll
in Medicare A. In this situation the premiums paid for Medicare A can
be included as a medical expense on your tax return.
Medicare B.
Medicare B is a supplemental medical insurance. Premiums you pay
for Medicare B are a medical expense. If you applied for it at age 65
or after you became disabled, you can deduct the monthly premiums you
paid. If you were over age 65 or disabled when you first enrolled,
check the information you received from the Social Security
Administration to find out your premium.
Prepaid insurance premiums.
Premiums you pay before you are age 65 for insurance for medical
care for yourself, your spouse, or your dependents after you reach age
65 are medical care expenses in the year paid if they are:
- Payable in equal yearly installments, or more often,
and
- Payable for at least 10 years, or until you reach age 65
(but not for less than 5 years).
Unused sick leave used to pay premiums.
You must include in gross income cash payments you receive at the
time of retirement for unused sick leave. You must also include in
gross income the value of unused sick leave that, at your option, your
employer applies to the cost of your continuing participation in your
employer's health plan after you retire. You can include this cost of
continuing participation in the health plan as a medical expense.
If you participate in a health plan where your employer
automatically applies the value of unused sick leave to the cost of
your continuing participation in the health plan (and you do not have
the option to receive cash), you do not include the value of the
unused sick leave in gross income. You cannot include this cost of
continuing participation in that health plan as a medical expense.
You cannot include premiums you pay for:
- Life insurance policies,
- Policies providing payment for loss of earnings,
- Policies for loss of life, limb, sight, etc.,
- Policies that pay you a guaranteed amount each week for a
stated number of weeks if you are hospitalized for sickness or injury,
or
- The part of your car insurance premiums that provides
medical insurance coverage for all persons injured in or by your car
because the part of the premium for you, your spouse, and your
dependents is not stated separately from the part of the premium for
medical care for others.
Health insurance costs for self-employed persons.
If you were self-employed and had a net profit for the year, were a
general partner (or a limited partner receiving guaranteed payments),
or received wages from an S corporation in which you were a more than
2% shareholder (who is treated as a partner), you may be able to
deduct, as an adjustment to income, up to 60% of the amount paid for
health insurance on behalf of yourself, your spouse, and dependents.
You take this deduction on Form 1040. If you itemize your deductions,
include the remaining premiums with all other medical care expenses on
Schedule A (Form 1040), subject to the 7.5% limit.
You may not take the deduction for any month in which you were
eligible to participate in any subsidized health plan maintained by
your employer or your spouse's employer.
If you qualify to take the deduction, use the Self-Employed
Health Insurance Deduction Worksheet in the Form 1040
instructions to figure the amount you can deduct. But, if any of the
following applies, do not use the worksheet.
- You had more than one source of income subject to
self-employment tax.
- You file Form 2555, Foreign Earned Income, or
Form 2555-EZ, Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.
- You are using amounts paid for qualified long-term care
insurance to figure the deduction.
If you cannot use the worksheet in the Form 1040 instructions,
use the worksheet in Publication 535,
Business Expenses, to
figure your deduction.
Laboratory Fees
You can include in medical expenses the amounts you pay for
laboratory fees that are part of your medical care.
Laser Eye Surgery
You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for surgery
to improve vision, such as radial keratotomy or other laser eye
surgery, if it is done primarily to promote the correct function of
the eye.
Lead-Based Paint Removal
You can include in medical expenses the cost of removing lead-based
paints from surfaces in your home to prevent a child who has or has
had lead poisoning from eating the paint. These surfaces must be in
poor repair (peeling or cracking) or within the child's reach. The
cost of repainting the scraped area is not a medical expense.
If, instead of removing the paint, you cover the area with
wallboard or paneling, treat these items as capital expenses. See
Capital Expenses, earlier. Do not include the cost of
painting the wallboard as a medical expense.
Learning Disability
You can include in medical expenses tuition fees you pay to a
special school for a child who has severe learning disabilities caused
by mental or physical impairments, including nervous system disorders.
Your doctor must recommend that the child attend the school. See
Schools and Education, Special, later.
You can also include tutoring fees you pay on your doctor's
recommendation for the child's tutoring by a teacher who is specially
trained and qualified to work with children who have severe learning
disabilities.
Legal Fees
You can include in medical expenses legal fees you paid that are
necessary to authorize treatment for mental illness. However, you
cannot include in medical expenses fees for the management of a
guardianship estate, fees for conducting the affairs of the person
being treated, or other fees that are not necessary for medical care.
Lifetime Care--Advance Payments
You can include in medical expenses a part of a life-care fee or
"founder's fee" you pay either monthly or as a lump sum under an
agreement with a retirement home. The part of the payment you include
is the amount properly allocable to medical care. The agreement must
require that you pay a specific fee as a condition for the home's
promise to provide lifetime care that includes medical care.
Dependents with disabilities.
You can include in medical expenses advance payments to a private
institution for lifetime care, treatment, and training of your
physically or mentally impaired child upon your death or when you
become unable to provide care. The payments must be a condition for
the institution's future acceptance of your child and must not be
refundable.
Payments for future medical care.
Generally, you are not allowed to include in medical expenses
current payments for medical care (including medical insurance) to be
provided substantially beyond the end of the year. This rule does not
apply in situations where the future care is purchased in connection
with obtaining lifetime care of the type described earlier.
Lodging
You can include in medical expenses the cost of meals and lodging
at a hospital or similar institution if your main reason for being
there is to receive medical care. See Nursing Home, later.
You may be able to include in medical expenses the cost of lodging
not provided in a hospital or similar institution. You can include the
cost of such lodging while away from home if you meet all of the
following requirements.
- The lodging is primarily for and essential to medical
care.
- The medical care is provided by a doctor in a licensed
hospital or in a medical care facility related to, or the equivalent
of, a licensed hospital.
- The lodging is not lavish or extravagant under the
circumstances.
- There is no significant element of personal pleasure,
recreation, or vacation in the travel away from home.
The amount you include in medical expenses for lodging cannot be
more than $50 for each night for each person. Lodging is included for
a person for whom transportation expenses are a medical expense
because that person is traveling with the person receiving the medical
care. For example, if a parent is traveling with a sick child, up to
$100 per night can be included as a medical expense for lodging. Meals
are not included.
Do not include the cost of your lodging while you are
away from home for medical treatment if you do not receive that
treatment from a doctor in a licensed hospital or in a medical care
facility related to, or the equivalent of, a licensed hospital or if
that lodging is not primarily for or essential to the medical care you
are receiving.
Long-Term Care Contracts, Qualified
A qualified long-term care insurance is an insurance contract that
provides only coverage of qualified long-term care services. The
contract must:
- Be guaranteed renewable,
- Not provide for a cash surrender value or other money that
can be paid, assigned, pledged, or borrowed,
- Provide that refunds, other than refunds on the death of the
insured or complete surrender or cancellation of the contract, and
dividends under the contract must be used only to reduce future
premiums or increase future benefits, and
- Generally not pay or reimburse expenses incurred for
services or items that would be reimbursed under Medicare, except
where Medicare is a secondary payer, or the contract makes per diem or
other periodic payments without regard to expenses.
Qualified Long-Term Care Services
Qualified long-term care services are:
- Necessary diagnostic, preventative, therapeutic, curing,
treating, mitigating, rehabilitative services, and maintenance and
personal care services, and
- Required by a chronically ill individual and provided
pursuant to a plan of care prescribed by a licensed health care
practitioner.
Chronically ill individual.
You are chronically ill if you have been certified by a licensed
health care practitioner within the previous 12 months as one of the
following:
- You are unable for at least 90 days, to perform at least two
activities of daily living without substantial assistance from another
individual, due to loss of functional capacity. Activities of daily
living are eating, toileting, transferring, bathing, dressing, and
continence, or
- You require substantial supervision to be protected from
threats to health and safety due to severe cognitive
impairment.
Periodic Payments Not Taxed
You can generally exclude from gross income benefits you receive
under a per diem type qualified long-term care insurance contract,
subject to a limit of $190 a day ($69,540 a year) for 2000. The $190
is indexed for inflation.
Itemized deductions.
If you itemize deductions, you can include the following as medical
expenses on Schedule A (Form 1040).
- Unreimbursed expenses for qualified long-term care
services.
- Qualified long-term care premiums up to the amounts shown
below.
- Age 40 or under - $220.
- Age 41 to 50 - $410.
- Age 51 to 60 - $820.
- Age 61 to 70 - $2,200.
- Age 71 or over - $2,750.
The limit on premiums is for each person.
Meals
You can include in medical expenses the cost of meals at a hospital
or similar institution if the main purpose for being there is to get
medical care.
You cannot include in medical expenses the cost of meals that are
not part of inpatient care.
Medical Conferences
You can include in medical expenses amounts paid for admission and
transportation to a medical conference if the medical conference
concerns the chronic illness of you, your spouse, or your dependent.
The costs of the medical conference must be primarily for and
necessary to the medical care of you, your spouse, or your dependent.
You must spend the majority of your time at the conference attending
sessions on medical information.
The cost of meals and lodging while attending the conference is not
deductible as a medical expense.
Medical Information Plan
You can include in medical expenses amounts paid to a plan that
keeps your medical information so that it can be retrieved from a
computer data bank for your medical care.
Medical Services
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for legal
medical services provided by:
- Physicians,
- Surgeons,
- Specialists, or
- Other medical practitioners.
Medicines
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for prescribed
medicines and drugs. A prescribed drug is one that requires a
prescription by a doctor for its use by an individual. You can also
include amounts you pay for insulin. Except for insulin, you cannot
include in medical expenses amounts you pay for a drug that is not
prescribed.
Controlled substances.
You cannot include in medical expenses amounts you pay for
controlled substances (such as marijuana, laetrile, etc.), in
violation of federal law.
Mentally Retarded,
Special Home for
You can include in medical expenses the cost of keeping a mentally
retarded person in a special home, not the home of a relative, on the
recommendation of a psychiatrist to help the person adjust from life
in a mental hospital to community living.
Nursing Home
You can include in medical expenses the cost of medical care in a
nursing home or home for the aged for yourself, your spouse, or your
dependents. This includes the cost of meals and lodging in the home if
the main reason for being there is to get medical care.
Do not include the cost of meals and lodging if the reason for
being in the home is personal. You can, however, include in medical
expenses the part of the cost that is for medical or nursing care.
Nursing Services
You can include in medical expenses wages and other amounts you pay
for nursing services. Services need not be performed by a nurse as
long as the services are of a kind generally performed by a nurse.
This includes services connected with caring for the patient's
condition, such as giving medication or changing dressings, as well as
bathing and grooming the patient. These services can be provided in
your home or another care facility.
Generally, only the amount spent for nursing services is a medical
expense. If the attendant also provides personal and household
services, these amounts must be divided between the time spent
performing household and personal services and the time spent for
nursing services. However, certain maintenance or personal care
services provided for qualified long-term care can be included in
medical expenses. See Long-Term Care Contracts, Qualified,
earlier. Additionally, certain expenses for household services
or for the care of a qualifying individual incurred to allow you to
work may qualify for the child and dependent care credit. See
Publication 503,
Child and Dependent Care Expenses.
You can also include in medical expenses part of the amount you pay
for that attendant's meals. Divide the food expense among the
household members to find the cost of the attendant's food. Then
apportion that cost in the same manner, as in the preceding paragraph.
If you had to pay additional amounts for household upkeep because of
the attendant, you can include the extra amounts with your medical
expenses. This includes extra rent or utilities you pay because you
moved to a larger apartment to provide space for the attendant.
Employment taxes.
You can include as a medical expense social security tax, FUTA,
Medicare tax, and state employment taxes you pay for a nurse,
attendant, or other person who provides medical care. For information
on employment tax responsibilities of household employers, see
Publication 926,
Household Employer's Tax Guide.
Healthy baby.
You cannot include the cost of nursing services for a normal,
healthy baby. But you may be able to take a credit for child care
expenses. See Publication 503
for more information. You also may be
able to take the child tax credit. See the instructions in your tax
package.
Operations
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for legal
operations that are not for unnecessary cosmetic surgery. See
Cosmetic Surgery under What Expenses Are Not
Deductible, later.
Optometrist
See Eyeglasses, earlier.
Organ Donors
See Transplants, later.
Osteopath
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay to an osteopath
for medical care.
Oxygen
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for oxygen and
oxygen equipment to relieve breathing problems caused by a medical
condition.
Prosthesis
See Artificial Limb, earlier.
Psychiatric Care
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for psychiatric
care. This includes the cost of supporting a mentally ill dependent at
a specially equipped medical center where the dependent receives
medical care. See Psychoanalysis, next, and
Transportation, later.
Psychoanalysis
You can include in medical expenses payments for psychoanalysis.
However, you cannot include payments for psychoanalysis that you must
get as a part of your training to be a psychoanalyst.
Psychologist
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay to a
psychologist for medical care.
Schools and Education, Special
You can include in medical expenses payments to a special school
for a mentally impaired or physically disabled person if the main
reason for using the school is its resources for relieving the
disability. You can include, for example, the cost of:
- Teaching Braille to a visually impaired child,
- Teaching lip reading to a hearing impaired child, or
- Giving remedial language training to correct a condition
caused by a birth defect.
The cost of meals, lodging, and ordinary education supplied by a
special school can be included in medical expenses only if the main
reason for the child's being there is the resources the school has for
relieving the mental or physical disability.
You cannot include in medical expenses the cost of sending a
problem child to a special school for benefits the child may get from
the course of study and the disciplinary methods.
Sterilization
You can include in medical expenses the cost of a legal
sterilization (a legally performed operation to make a person unable
to have children).
Stop-Smoking Programs
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for a program
to stop smoking. If you paid for a stop-smoking program in 1997 or
1998, you may be able to file an amended return on Form 1040X to
include in medical expenses the amounts you paid for that stop-smoking
program. However, you cannot include in medical expenses amounts you
pay for drugs that do not require a prescription, such as nicotine gum
or patches, that are designed to help stop smoking.
Surgery
See Operations, earlier.
Telephone
You can include in medical expenses the cost and repair of special
telephone equipment that lets a hearing-impaired person communicate
over a regular telephone.
Television
You can include in medical expenses the cost of equipment that
displays the audio part of television programs as subtitles for
hearing-impaired persons. This may be the cost of an adapter that
attaches to a regular set. It also may be the cost of a specially
equipped television that exceeds the cost of the same model regular
television set.
Therapy
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for therapy you
receive as medical treatment.
"Patterning" exercises.
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay to an
individual for giving "patterning" exercises to a mentally
retarded child. These exercises consist mainly of coordinated physical
manipulation of the child's arms and legs to imitate crawling and
other normal movements.
Transplants
You can include in medical expenses payments you make for surgical,
hospital, laboratory, and transportation expenses for a donor or a
possible donor of a kidney or other organ. You cannot include expenses
if you did not pay for them.
A donor or possible donor can include surgical, hospital,
laboratory, and transportation expenses in medical expenses only if he
or she pays for them.
Transportation
You can include in medical expenses amounts paid for transportation
primarily for, and essential to, medical care.
You can include:
- Bus, taxi, train, or plane fares, or ambulance
service,
- Transportation expenses of a parent who must go with a child
who needs medical care,
- Transportation expenses of a nurse or other person who can
give injections, medications, or other treatment required by a patient
who is traveling to get medical care and is unable to travel alone,
and
- Transportation expenses for regular visits to see a mentally
ill dependent, if these visits are recommended as a part of treatment.
You cannot include:
- Transportation expenses to and from work, even if your
condition requires an unusual means of transportation, or
- Transportation expenses if, for nonmedical reasons only, you
choose to travel to another city, such as a resort area, for an
operation or other medical care prescribed by your doctor.
Car expenses.
You can include out-of-pocket expenses for your car, such as gas
and oil, when you use your car for medical reasons. You cannot include
depreciation, insurance, general repair, or maintenance expenses.
If you do not want to use your actual expenses, you can use a
standard rate of 10 cents a mile for use of your car for
medical reasons.
You can also include the cost of parking fees
and tolls. You can add these fees
and tolls to your medical expenses whether you use actual expenses or
use the standard mileage rate.
Example.
Bill Jones drove 2,800 miles for medical reasons during the year.
He spent $200 for gas, $5 for oil, and $50 for tolls and parking. He
wants to figure the amount he can include in medical expenses both
ways to see which gives him the greater deduction.
He figures the actual expenses first. He adds the $200 for gas, the
$5 for oil, and the $50 for tolls and parking for a total of $255.
He then figures the standard mileage amount. He multiplies the
2,800 miles by 10 cents a mile for a total of $280. He then adds the
$50 tolls and parking for a total of $330.
Bill includes the $330 of car expenses with his other medical
expenses for the year because the $330 is more than the $255 he
figured using actual expenses.
Trips
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for
transportation to another city if the trip is primarily for, and
essential to, receiving medical services. You may be able to include
up to $50 per night for lodging. See Lodging, earlier.
You cannot include in medical expenses a trip or vacation taken
merely for a change in environment, improvement of morale, or general
improvement of health, even if you make the trip on the advice of a
doctor.
Tuition
You can include in medical expenses charges for medical care
included in the tuition of a college or private school, if the charges
are separately stated in the bill or given to you by the school. See
Learning Disability, earlier, and Schools and
Education, Special, earlier.
Vasectomy
You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for a
vasectomy.
Weight-Loss Program
You can include in medical expenses the cost of a weight-loss
program undertaken at a physician's direction to treat an existing
disease (such as heart disease). But you cannot include the cost of a
weight-loss program if the purpose of the weight control is to
maintain your general good health.
Wheelchair
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for an autoette
or a wheelchair used mainly for the relief of sickness or disability,
and not just to provide transportation to and from work. The cost of
operating and keeping up the autoette or wheelchair is also a medical
expense.
X-ray Fees
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for X-rays that
you get for medical reasons.
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