Surgery a tax write- off?!

[JAMILLAH E 0]

Hey Bandsters,

Heard that you can actually write off medical expenses and just wondered if any of you have been able to do so? Getting ready to file and any feedback would be helpful....I was self pay!

Thanks

[Juliat 6]

Hey Bandsters,

Heard that you can actually write off medical expenses and just wondered if any of you have been able to do so? Getting ready to file and any feedback would be helpful....I was self pay!

Thanks

If you have medical expenses that are over ~5000 dollars, then you can write them off. Did you self-pay? I'm not sure about folks who have insurance, but I was able to because I self-payed. Also, I took out money from an IRA to do so and was able to put that it was for medical which took care of the 20% penalty I was going to have to pay.

Julia

[JAMILLAH E 0]

Thanks so much!

If you have medical expenses that are over ~5000 dollars, then you can write them off. Did you self-pay? I'm not sure about folks who have insurance, but I was able to because I self-payed. Also, I took out money from an IRA to do so and was able to put that it was for medical which took care of the 20% penalty I was going to have to pay.

Julia

[hmm33502 187]

You can write off any medical expenses over 7.5% (i think it's 7.5% or maybe 9.5%) of your Gross income. ALL MEDICAL EXPENSES. They include perscriptions, food for specially perscribed diets (like an all liquid diet), surgery, doctor visits, copays, etc. Get all expenses together and check it out!

[vickyd 24]

Yes, it is 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income. But you can only write off the out of pocket portion that is over the 7.5% threshold (not the entire amount). You can also write off prescriptions, mileage, office visits, etc. If your surgery was covered by insurance your out of pocket charges may not meet the threshold (mine didn't)...it depends on what your Adjusted Gross Income is..

[HeatherinCA 10]

Yep... mine wasn't settled last year. So I couldn't claim it for 2010.

But I've been deducting my personal trainer expenses for a few years with a doctors note. (my parents paid my credit card bill, but my income was low enough i could deduct it)

But yea, it may not be high enough because you get a general deduction anyways if it's under that.

[mattie7632 24]

If the standard deduction is higher than your medical expenses, you won't get anymore credit for the medical deduction because it works out so you don't get BOTH, but it's certainly worth comparing which deduction is highest when you do your taxes--