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Home » Long Term Weight Loss » Publication 502 (2014), Medical and Dental Expenses

What Are Medical Expenses?

Medical expenses are the costs of diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, and the costs for treatments affecting any part or function of the body. These expenses include payments for legal medical services rendered by physicians, surgeons, dentists, and other medical practitioners. They include the costs of equipment, supplies, and diagnostic devices needed for these purposes.

Medical care expenses must be primarily to alleviate or prevent a physical or mental defect or illness. They do not include expenses that are merely beneficial to general health, such as vitamins or a vacation.

Medical expenses include the premiums you pay for insurance that covers the expenses of medical care, and the amounts you pay for transportation to get medical care. Medical expenses also include amounts paid for qualified long-term care services and limited amounts paid for any qualified long-term care insurance contract.

You can include only the medical and dental expenses you paid this year, regardless of when the services were provided. (But see Decedent under Whose Medical Expenses Can You Include, 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 online 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. If you use a credit card, include medical expenses you charge to your credit card in the year the charge is made, not when you actually pay the amount charged.

If you did not claim a medical or dental expense that would have been deductible in an earlier year, you can file Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, for the year in which you overlooked the expense. Do not claim the expense on this year's return. Generally, an amended return must be filed within 3 years from the date the original return was filed or within 2 years from the time the tax was paid, whichever is later.

You cannot include medical expenses that were paid by insurance companies or other sources. This is true whether the payments were made directly to you, to the patient, or to the provider of the medical services.

Generally, you can deduct on Schedule A (Form 1040) only the amount of your medical and dental expenses that is more than 10% of your AGI. But if either you or your spouse was born before January 2, 1950, you can deduct the amount of your medical and dental expenses that is more than 7.5% of your AGI.

Example.

You are unmarried and were born after January 2, 1950, and your AGI is $40,000, 10% of which is $4,000. You paid medical expenses of $2,500. You cannot deduct any of your medical expenses because they are not more than 10% of your AGI.

You can generally include medical expenses you pay for yourself, as well as those you pay for someone who was your spouse or your dependent either when the services were provided or when you paid for them. There are different rules for decedents and for individuals who are the subject of multiple support agreements. See Support claimed under a multiple support agreement , later, under Qualifying Relative.

You can include medical expenses you paid for your spouse. To include these expenses, you must have been married either at the time your spouse received the medical services or at the time you paid the medical expenses.

Example 1.

Mary received medical treatment before she married Bill. Bill paid for the treatment after they married. Bill can include these expenses in figuring his medical expense deduction even if Bill and Mary file separate returns.

If Mary had paid the expenses, Bill could not include Mary's expenses in his separate return. Mary would include the amounts she paid during the year in her separate return. If they filed a joint return, the medical expenses both paid during the year would be used to figure their medical expense deduction.

Example 2.

This year, John paid medical expenses for his wife Louise, who died last year. John married Belle this year and they file a joint return. Because John was married to Louise when she received the medical services, he can include those expenses in figuring his medical expense deduction for this year.

You can include medical expenses you paid for your dependent. For you to include these expenses, the person must have been your dependent either at the time the medical services were provided or at the time you paid the expenses. A person generally qualifies as your dependent for purposes of the medical expense deduction if both of the following requirements are met.

You can include medical expenses you paid for an individual that would have been your dependent except that:

He or she received gross income of $3,950 or more in 2014,

He or she filed a joint return for 2014, or

You, or your spouse if filing jointly, could be claimed as a dependent on someone else's 2014 return.

A qualifying child is a child who:

Is your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, half sister, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your grandchild, niece, or nephew),

Was:

Under age 19 at the end of 2014 and younger than you (or your spouse, if filing jointly),

Under age 24 at the end of 2014, a full-time student, and younger than you (or your spouse, if filing jointly), or

Any age and permanently and totally disabled,

Lived with you for more than half of 2014,

Did not provide over half of his or her own support for 2014, and

Did not file a joint return, other than to claim a refund.

The child is in the custody of one or both parents for more than half the year,

The child receives over half of his or her support during the year from his or her parents, and

The child's parents:

Are divorced or legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance,

Are separated under a written separation agreement, or

Live apart at all times during the last 6 months of the year.

A qualifying relative is a person:

Who is your:

Son, daughter, stepchild, or foster child, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your grandchild),

Brother, sister, half brother, half sister, or a son or daughter of any of them,

Father, mother, or an ancestor or sibling of either of them (for example, your grandmother, grandfather, aunt, or uncle),

Stepbrother, stepsister, stepfather, stepmother, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law, or

Any other person (other than your spouse) who lived with you all year as a member of your household if your relationship did not violate local law,

Who was not a qualifying child (see Qualifying Child, earlier) of any taxpayer for 2014, and

For whom you provided over half of the support in 2014. But see Child of divorced or separated parents , earlier, Support claimed under a multiple support agreement, next, and Kidnapped child under Qualifying Relative in Publication 501.

Example.

You and your three brothers each provide one-fourth of your mother's total support. Under a multiple support agreement, you treat your mother as your dependent. You paid all of her medical expenses. Your brothers repaid you for three-fourths of these expenses. In figuring your medical expense deduction, you can include only one-fourth of your mother's medical expenses. Your brothers cannot include any part of the expenses. However, if you and your brothers share the nonmedical support items and you separately pay all of your mother's medical expenses, you can include the unreimbursed amount you paid for her medical expenses in your medical expenses.

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.

The survivor or personal representative of a decedent can choose to treat certain expenses paid by the decedent's estate for the decedent's medical care as paid by the decedent at the time the medical services were provided. The expenses must be paid within the 1-year period beginning with the day after the date of death. If you are the survivor or personal representative making this choice, you must attach a statement to the decedent's Form 1040 (or the decedent's amended return, Form 1040X) saying that the expenses have not been and will not be claimed on the estate tax return.

Example.

John properly filed his 2013 income tax return. He died in 2014 with unpaid medical expenses of $1,500 from 2013 and $1,800 in 2014. If the expenses are paid within the 1-year period, his survivor or personal representative can file an amended return for 2013 claiming a deduction based on the $1,500 medical expenses. The $1,800 of medical expenses from 2014 can be included on the decedent's final return for 2014.

Following is a list of items that you can include in figuring your medical expense deduction. The items are listed in alphabetical order.

This list does not include all possible medical expenses. To determine if an expense not listed can be included in figuring your medical expense deduction, see What Are Medical Expenses , earlier.

You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for a legal abortion.

You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for acupuncture.

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 amounts you pay for transportation to and from Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in your community if the attendance is pursuant to medical advice that membership in Alcoholics Anonymous is necessary for the treatment of a disease involving the excessive use of alcoholic liquors.

You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for ambulance service.

You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for an artificial limb.

You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for artificial teeth.

You can include in medical expenses the cost of medical supplies such as bandages.

You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for birth control pills prescribed by a doctor.

You can include in medical expenses the cost of an electronic body scan.

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.

You can include in medical expenses the cost of breast pumps and supplies that assist lactation.

You can include in medical expenses the amounts you pay for breast reconstruction surgery, as well as breast prosthesis, following a mastectomy for cancer. See Cosmetic Surgery , later.

You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for special equipment installed in a home, or for improvements, if their main purpose is medical care for you, your spouse, or your dependent. The cost of permanent improvements that increase the value of your property may be partly included as a medical expense. The cost of the improvement is reduced by the increase in the value of your property. The difference is a medical expense. If the value of your property is not increased by the improvement, the entire cost is included as a medical expense.

Certain improvements made to accommodate a 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 elevators generally add value to the house).

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.

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.

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.

You can include in medical expenses fees you pay to a chiropractor for medical care.

You can include in medical expenses fees you pay to Christian Science practitioners for medical care.

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 Eyeglasses and Eye Surgery , later.

You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay to buy or rent crutches.

You can include in medical expenses the amounts you pay for the prevention and alleviation of dental disease. Preventive treatment includes the services of a dental hygienist or dentist for such procedures as teeth cleaning, the application of sealants, and fluoride treatments to prevent tooth decay. Treatment to alleviate dental disease include services of a dentist for procedures such as X-rays, fillings, braces, extractions, dentures, and other dental ailments. But see Teeth Whitening under What Expenses Are Not Includible, later.

You can include in medical expenses the cost of devices used in diagnosing and treating illness and disease.

Example.

You have diabetes and use a blood sugar test kit to monitor your blood sugar level. You can include the cost of the blood sugar test kit in your medical expenses.

Some disabled dependent care expenses may qualify as either:

You can choose to apply them either way as long as you do not use the same expenses to claim both a credit and a medical expense deduction.

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.

You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for eye examinations.

You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for eyeglasses and contact lenses needed for medical reasons. See Contact Lenses , earlier, for more information.

You can include in medical expenses the amount you pay for eye surgery to treat defective vision, such as laser eye surgery or radial keratotomy.

Read more:
Publication 502 (2014), Medical and Dental Expenses

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