Using Medical Tax Deduction Benefits To Your Advantage

Not many tax payers are completely conscious of the different categories under which tax deduction is available for medical expenses. People who do have knowledge of these categories are more able to make good use of it to cover most of their medical bills. They also know that they can take away medical costs as long as it exceeds 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income. All the others will be able to make use of this benefit by following the guidelines below:

1. The first requirement is to attain the 7.5 per cent figure. To achieve this, you should take into account the medical expenses for every person listed on your tax return: your spouse, your children and all other dependents. You can even take account of the medical and dental bills of a family member who might have died during the course of the past tax year.

2. Don’t forget to include the expenses such as transportation from your residence to the place where you will be treated. You can calculate your expenses by using the cents-per-mile allowance provided on the IRS website. Your expenses are not limited to that though, there are many more such as long term care insurance (based on your age), uninsured treatments such as an extra pair of eyeglasses or pair of contact lenses, false teeth, hearing aids and prosthetic limbs, even some program’s for weight loss have been added to the expenses list.

3. Other tax deductible items are for people with special medical needs such as the use of crutches or wheelchairs for example. Also, if you alter your house -- on doctor’s request of course – in order to add a ramp or widen the doors, these costs also can be deductible in part.

4. Other deductions: don’t disregard all the miscellaneous deductions. They include: expenses made on eye surgery, acupuncture, legal abortion, drug rehabilitation, prescription drugs and insulin, nursing home and nursing services, ambulance service, hospital expenses, laboratory expenses, health insurance premiums, dependent fees paid to doctors, surgeons, specialists, dentists, psychologists, and other medical practitioners. When you add all these up, any figure you find which is beyond the 7.5 per cent mark is deductible from tax.

The down side is that there certain medical costs cannot be deducted. For example: cosmetic surgery, dancing lessons gymnasium payments or costs for a weight loss program, hair transplants and electrolysis operations, bottled water-still or sparkling, diaper service, teeth whitening and maternity clothes.

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