DM32,

Please note that there are rules for who may travel with the "patient" and the maximum per night allowance per person and the purpose of the travel.

In answering questions of law, especially Tax Law, you must often qualify your yes, no or maybe with numerous rules or limits. Only knowing the exact circumstances surrounding the question can tax practioners sometimes say yes without the urge to talk for another 10 minutes about why it might not be yes.

David, can supplies like ensure, boost, flavored water, etc be deducted if it was not perscribed by a dr.? Bill B

Talbill,

Generally non prescription drugs and over the counter drugs are not deductible but....

there is an exception for nutritional supplements if they are recommended by a medical practitioner for a condition diagnosed by a doctor.

Therefore since we all are told to get Ensure, Boost and VHC, etc and they are nutritional supplements, I would take the YES postion.

NO to the flavored water for the same reasons.

NOTICE PURSUANT TO INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE CIRCULAR NO. 230
As required by Internal Revenue Service Circular No. 230, please be advised that any advice that may be contained in this communication is not intended or written to be used, and may not be used, by a taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer.

David,

A couple of tax questions: Is there an amount that you must go over before you can claim medical expenses?

What do you think of Turbo Tax or H&R Blocks Tax cut? Which is better? If you don't want to answer me publicly you can email me.

Tim

David,

Thanks for the information. I answered but then hit the wrong button with out the rest of information.

I was able to claim Hotel, Motel last year when I had to move to where my treatments were. Sorry I did not explain sooner for others to understand situation.

Thanks,
Diane

Before you can take any Medical deductions you must first itemize your deductions and then the medical has to exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, so if you can't itemize, it's all academic.

Remember when you are adding up medical to include the cost of your insurance including dental. The bills and mileage eligible are for the entire family, not just cancer patient. Dr ordered medical supplies like suction machines, commodes, prosthesis, new teeth are allowable, but not things like diapers, gloves, or other non pecsription items.

Make certain you keep good records. If you know ahead that you will be taking the deduction because of a large expense like teeth, it is much easier to keep the records rather than trying to reconstruct them in April.

I'm not a tax accountant, but have managed to file for medical a few years because of high cost of dental expenses. David, please correct me if any of what I stated is wrong.

Eileen

Tim,

Unless you are taking a deduction for medical expenses under a Archer MSA (Medical Savings Account) or the HSA breifly discussed above, you must itemize your deductions to claim your medical expenses.

Everyone gets a "standard deduction" and it only benefits you to itemize if your total itemized deductions exceed your standard deduction.

Standard deduction amounts are :

Single $5,150
Married filing joint $10,300
Married filing seperate $5,150
Head of household $7,550

Next you would want to compare the total of all your itemized deductions to the above totals. The most common deductions to itemize are:

State income taxes or sales tax
Real estate taxes
Mortgage points and interest
Contributions
Medical expenses

For Medical expenses however you can only include the amount of medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income which is Line 37 on the form 1040.

As far as packaged tax software, I can't help you because I've never seen those running. I would caution everyone however that CPA's spend thousands of dollars a year on our tax software and even our software is not without problems that only full time tax practitioners could detect and know how to make the forms do what their supposed to do.

Every year I get new clients that have prepared their own returns that I end up Amending their returns and getting them thousands of dollars in refunds. The Tax Laws are extremely complicated and change often. For example...In December of 2006, Congress passed a bill that extended some tax benefits that were set to expire 12/31/06. The IRS had already printed the 2006 forms and said "we're not reprinting them". So they told tax pratitioners what lines to use for these "Extender Provisions" and how to tell them, the IRS, what we were deducting on that particular line. Anyway my point is that if I weren't a CPA who also specializes in taxation I wouldn't even try to prepare my own return unless I only had W-2 source income and used the standard deduction.

NOTICE PURSUANT TO INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE CIRCULAR NO. 230
As required by Internal Revenue Service Circular No. 230, please be advised that any advice that may be contained in this communication is not intended or written to be used, and may not be used, by a taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer.

David,

I'm a CPA who specializes in taxation, and I don't even prepare my own (joint) return -- because I specialize mostly in corporate taxes, which are quite different, as you know! You're absolutely right about the convoluted state of the tax laws in general and the fact that it can be risky to take a software package at face value.

Cathy

Eileen,

Everything you said is valid. I'll refer the tough questions to you. LOL

David,

Can the premiums I've paid for AFLAC Cancer Insurance be used as a deduction along with the regular medical and dental?

Thanks.
Vicki