Tax Topic #502 |
2008 Tax Year |
Topic 502 - Medical and Dental Expenses
If you itemize your deductions on Form 1040, Schedule A (PDF),
you may be able to deduct expenses you paid that year for medical care (including
dental) for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents. A deduction is allowed
only for expenses paid for the prevention or alleviation of a physical or
mental defect or illness. Medical care expenses include payments for the diagnosis,
cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or treatment affecting
any structure or function of the body. The cost of drugs is deductible only
for drugs that require a prescription, except for insulin.
Medical expenses include fees paid to doctors, dentists, surgeons, chiropractors,
psychiatrists, psychologists, and Christian Science practitioners. Also included
are payments for hospital services, qualified long–term care services,
nursing services, and laboratory fees. Payments for acupuncture treatments
or inpatient treatment at a center for alcohol or drug addiction are also
deductible medical expenses. You may include amounts you paid for participating
in a smoking–cessation program and for drugs prescribed to alleviate
nicotine withdrawal. However, you may not deduct amounts paid for nicotine
gum and nicotine patches, which do not require a prescription. You may deduct
the cost of participating in a weight-loss program for a specific disease
or diseases, including obesity, diagnosed by a physician. You may not deduct
the cost of purchasing diet food items. In addition, you may include expenses
for admission and transportation to a medical conference relating to the chronic
disease of yourself, your spouse, or your dependent (if the costs are primarily
for and essential to the medical care). However, you may not deduct the costs
for meals and lodging while attending the medical conference.
The cost of items such as false teeth, prescription eyeglasses or contact
lenses, laser eye surgery, hearing aids, crutches, wheelchairs, and guide
dogs for the blind or deaf are deductible medical expenses.
You may not deduct funeral or burial expenses, health club dues, over–the–counter
medicines, toothpaste, toiletries, cosmetics, a trip or program for the general
improvement of your health, or most cosmetic surgery.
You may deduct transportation costs primarily for and essential to medical
care that qualify as medical expenses. The actual fare for a taxi, bus, train,
or ambulance can be deducted. If you use your car for medical transportation,
you can deduct actual out–of–pocket expenses such as gas and oil,
or you can deduct the standard mileage rate for medical expenses. With either
method you may include tolls and parking fees.
You may include in medical expenses the incidental cost of meals and lodging
charged by the hospital or similar institution if your main reason for being
there is to receive medical care.
You can only include the medical expenses you paid during the year, regardless
of when the services were provided. Your total medical expenses for the year
must be reduced by any reimbursement. It makes no difference if you receive
the reimbursement or if it is paid directly to the doctor or hospital.
You may include qualified medical expenses you pay for yourself, your spouse,
and your dependents, including a person you claim as a dependent under a multiple
support agreement. If either parent claims a child as a dependent under the
rules for divorced or separated parents, each parent may deduct the medical
expenses he or she actually pays for the child. You can also deduct medical
expenses you paid for someone who would have qualified as your dependent except
that the person didn't meet the gross income or joint return test.
You may deduct only the amount by which your total medical care expenses
for the year exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. You do this calculation
on Form 1040 Schedule A in computing the amount deductible.
Medical expenses include insurance premiums paid for accident and health
or qualified long-term care insurance. You may not deduct insurance premiums
for life insurance, for policies providing for loss of wages because of illness
or injury, or policies that pay you a guaranteed amount each week for a sickness.
In addition, the deduction for a qualified long–term care insurance
policy's premium is limited. Refer to Publication 502 , Medical and
Dental Expenses.
You may not deduct insurance premiums paid by an employer–sponsored
health insurance plan (cafeteria plan) unless the premiums are included in
Box 1 of your Form W-2 (PDF).
If you are self–employed and have a net profit for the year, or if
you are a partner in a partnership or a shareholder in an S corporation, you
may be able to deduct, as an adjustment to income, 100% of the amount you
pay for medical insurance for yourself and your spouse and dependents. You
can include the remaining premiums with your other medical expenses as an
itemized deduction. You cannot take the special 100% deduction for any month
in which you are eligible to participate in any subsidized health plan maintained
by your employer or your spouse's employer.
Publication 502, Medical and Dental Expenses, contains additional
information.
Page Last Reviewed or Updated: December 22, 2008
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