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, 1949, you can deduct the amount of your medical and dental expenses that is more than 7.5% 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.

Dependent

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.

1. The person was a qualifying child (defined later) or a qualifying relative (defined later), and
2. The person was a U.S. citizen or national or a resident of the United States, Canada, or Mexico. If your qualifying child was adopted, see Exception for adopted child , later.

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

1. He or she received gross income of $4,200 or more in 2019,
2. He or she filed a joint return for 2019, or
3. You, or your spouse if filing jointly, could be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s 2019 return.

 

Exception for adopted child. If you are a U.S. citizen or national and your adopted child lived with you as a member of your household for 2019, that child does not have to be a U.S. citizen or national, or a resident of the United States, Canada, or Mexico.

Qualifying Child

A qualifying child is a child who:

1. 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),
2. Was:
   1. Under age 19 at the end of 2019 and younger than you (or your spouse, if filing jointly),
   2. Under age 24 at the end of 2019, a full-time student, and younger than you (or your spouse, if filing jointly), or
   3. Any age and permanently and totally disabled,
3. Lived with you for more than half of 2019,
4. Did not provide over half of his or her own support for 2019, and
5. Did not file a joint return, other than to claim a refund.

 

Adopted child. A legally adopted child is treated as your own child. This child includes a child lawfully placed with you for legal adoption. You can include medical expenses that you paid for a child before adoption if the child qualified as your dependent when the medical services were provided or when the expenses were paid. If you pay back an adoption agency or other persons for medical expenses they paid under an agreement with you, you are treated as having paid those expenses provided you clearly substantiate that the payment is directly attributable to the medical care of the child. But if you pay the agency or other person for medical care that was provided and paid for before adoption negotiations began, you cannot include them as medical expenses.

You may be able to take a credit for other expenses related to an adoption. See the Instructions for Form 8839, Qualified Adoption Expenses, for more information.

Child of divorced or separated parents. For purposes of the medical and dental expenses deduction, a child of divorced or separated parents can be treated as a dependent of both parents. Each parent can include the medical expenses he or she pays for the child, even if the other parent claims the child’s dependency exemption, if:

1. The child is in the custody of one or both parents for more than half the year,
2. The child receives over half of his or her support during the year from his or her parents, and
3. The child’s parents:
   1. Are divorced or legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance,
   2. Are separated under a written separation agreement, or
   3. Live apart at all times during the last 6 months of the year.

This does not apply if the child’s exemption is being claimed under a multiple support agreement (discussed later).

Qualifying Relative

A qualifying relative is a person:

1. Who is your:
   1. Son, daughter, stepchild, or foster child, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your grandchild),
   2. Brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, or a son or daughter of any of them,
   3. Father, mother, or an ancestor or sibling of either of them (for example, your grandmother, grandfather, aunt, or uncle),
   4. Stepbrother, stepsister, stepfather, stepmother, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law, or
   5. 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,
2. Who was not a qualifying child (see Qualifying Child, earlier) of any taxpayer for 2019, and
3. For whom you provided over half of the support in 2019. 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.

 

Support claimed under a multiple support agreement. If you are considered to have provided more than half of a qualifying relative’s support under a multiple support agreement, you can include medical expenses you pay for that person. A multiple support agreement is used when two or more people provide more than half of a person’s support, but no one alone provides more than half. Any medical expenses paid by others who joined you in the agreement cannot be included as medical expenses by anyone. However, you can include the entire unreimbursed amount you paid for medical expenses.

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.

Decedent

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.

Qualified medical expenses paid before death by the decedent are not deductible if paid with a tax-free distribution from any Archer MSA, Medicare Advantage MSA, or health savings account.

What if the decedent’s return had been filed and the medical expenses were not included? Form 1040X can be filed for the year or years the expenses are treated as paid, unless the period for filing an amended return for that year has passed. Generally, an amended return must be filed within 3 years of the date the original return was filed, or within 2 years from the time the tax was paid, whichever date is later.

Example.

John properly filed his 2012 income tax return. He died in 2019 with unpaid medical expenses of $1,500 from 2012 and $1,800 in 2019. If the expenses are paid within the 1-year period, his survivor or personal representative can file an amended return for 2012 claiming a deduction based on the $1,500 medical expenses. The $1,800 of medical expenses from 2019 can be included on the decedent’s final return for 2019.

What if you pay medical expenses of a deceased spouse or dependent? If you paid medical expenses for your deceased spouse or dependent, include them as medical expenses on your Form 1040 in the year paid, whether they are paid before or after the decedent’s death. The expenses can be included if the person was your spouse or dependent either at the time the medical services were provided or at the time you paid the expenses.

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.

Read more at: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p502/ar02.html

Core Documents, Inc. has been providing free consulting, affordable plan documents, and plan updates as needed for Section 125 Cafeteria Plans and Health Reimbursement Arrangements since 1997. See more information about these fringe benefit plans at Core Documents’ website: https://www.coredocuments.com, or call toll free 1-888-755-3373.

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