Do you have medical expenses? Do you itemize your taxes? Do you own a home?
While one usually doesn’t have a lot of “great” things to say about the IRS, they do give some pretty awesome legal ways to deduct expenses.
The IRS provides two methods: Standard Deduction or Itemization
Standardization is where you are allow to take a certain deduction based on if you are married, single, widowed, head of household OR married filing as single. This is a standard amount and is predetermined based on your status. There is no wiggle room here.
Itemization is where you are able to deduct items off the your taxes either at cost or at the amount predetermined by the IRS.
For more information you can find the IRS explanation here.
Did you know that owning a home has another benefit?
While there are people in the world that have enough items to deduct off of the IRS list of allowed deductions without a home most people need the interest and tax deduction of a owning a home to make itemizing worth it. This is one more reason as discussed on our tax article series where owning a home is very beneficial for your taxes.
Here is a list of all the allowed tax deduction on the IRS found here
What people don’t realize is that you can take medical expenses above 10% AGI (adjust gross income).
While for many of us our bills after insurance payment (no double dipping) is not high enough. Those who have chronic illness or family member does then this could be a great tax deduction.
Here are the 80 medical tax deductions that the IRS allows:
- Acupuncture
- Alcoholism
- Ambulance
- Annual Physical Examination
- Artificial Limb
- Artificial Teeth
- Bandages
- Birth Control Pills
- Body Scan
- Braille Books and Magazines
- Breast Pumps and Supplies
- Breast Reconstruction Surgery
- Capital Expenses
- Car
- Chiropractor
- Christian Science Practitioner
- Contact Lenses
- Crutches
- Dental Treatment
- Diagnostic Devices
- Disabled Dependent Care Expenses
- Drug Addiction
- Drugs
- Eye Exam
- Eyeglasses
- Eye Surgery
- Fertility Enhancement
- Founder’s Fee
- Guide Dog or Other Service Animal
- Health Institute
- Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)
- Hearing Aids
- Home Care
- Home Improvements
- Hospital Services
- Insurance Premiums
- Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled, Special Home for
- Laboratory Fees
- Lactation Expenses
- Lead-Based Paint Removal
- Learning Disability
- Legal Fees
- Lifetime Care—Advance Payments
- Lodging
- Long-Term Care
- Meals
- Medical Conferences
- Medical Information Plan
- Medicines
- Nursing Home
- Nursing Services
- Operations
- Optometrist
- Organ Donors
- Osteopath
- Oxygen
- Physical Examination
- Pregnancy Test Kit
- Prosthesis
- Psychiatric Care
- Psychoanalysis
- Psychologist
- Reproductive Services
- Special Education
- Sterilization
- Stop-Smoking Programs
- Surgery
- Telephone
- Television
- Therapy
- Transplants
- Transportation
- Trips
- Tuition
- Vasectomy
- Vision Correction Surgery
- Weight-Loss Program
- Wheelchair
- Wig
- X-ray
While there are always strings attached, the biggest key is that these have to be out of pocket expenses. They don’t let you double dip from expenses that your insurance has always covered.
Having a medical condition can be expensive. So don’t miss out on the help that the IRS does offer.
What has your experience been? Do you deduct your medical expenses? Have they affected your taxes?
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