If you itemize your deductions you may be able to Deduct expenses

You pay each year for medical and dental care. This includes Medical Travel for you, your spouse, and your children or dependents.

A deduction is allowed only for expenses paid for the prevention or treatment of a physical issue 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.

US Tax Deductions – Medical Expenses and Medical Travel

IRS Deductible Medical Expenses

It would be easier to state what is not included and say everything else is a deduction, but the list of deductions per current IRS law recites: Medical expenses may include fees paid to doctors, dentists, surgeons, chiropractors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and most practitioners.

Also included are payments for hospital services, qualified long-term care services, nursing services, and laboratory fees. Payments for acupuncture treatments, inpatient treatment, alcohol, or drug addiction programs are also deductible medical expenses. You may include amounts you paid for participating in a stop-smoking program and for drugs prescribed to help. You can deduct the cost of participating in a weight-loss program for a specific disease or diseases, including obesity, diagnosed by a physician, but unless prescribed by your physician, you can not deduct the cost of purchasing diet food items or gym fees.

The cost of items that you may have not considered that are deductible medical expenses such as false teeth, prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses, laser eye surgery, hearing aids, crutches, wheelchairs, and guide dogs for the blind or deaf. In addition, you can include expenses for a medical conference and transportation if it is relating to the chronic disease of you, a spouse, or a dependent. Although, you may not deduct the cost of meals and lodging while attending the conference.

You can deduct all forms of transportation costs primarily for your medical care, that qualify as medical expenses.

The amount of the fare for air, car, taxi, bus, train, or ambulance can be deducted. If you use your car for medical transportation, you can deduct with the receipts, out of pocket expenses like gas and oil, or you can deduct the standard mileage rate for medical expenses. You can include tolls, parking fees, the incidental cost of meals and lodging charged by a hospital or similar institution if your principal reason for being there is to receive medical care.

Medical expenses include insurance premiums paid for medical care or qualified long-term care insurance and  Medical Travel outside the US.

You can include qualified medical expenses you pay for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents, including a person you claim as a dependent under a support agreement.

IRS Non-Deductible Medical Expenses

You can only include the medical expenses you paid during the year. The list of items that are not deductible seems rather short.

The cost of drugs is deductible only for drugs that require a prescription.

You can not deduct funeral or burial expenses, over the counter medicines, toothpaste, toiletries, cosmetics, a trip or program for the general improvement of your health, or most cosmetic surgery that can not be proven as a medical need,

You can deduct only the amount by which your “total medical care expenses” for the year exceed 7.5% of your total adjusted gross income.

You can 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.

Seek a professional CPA or tax attorney for a complete understanding of the law. The references are not tax advice and can change overnight as many IRS rules due.

So, please refer to IRS Publication 502, Medical, and Dental Expenses.

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