The tax deductibility of medical expenses: things the IRS allows, and some it doesn't

The timing seemed good for posting this kind of thread today.

By now most of us have probably already filed with the IRS, and are now sitting back and waiting for our refunds to come, if we're due any.

Perhaps we itemized deductions, and if the total of our medical expenses (if any) exceeded 7.5% of our adjusted gross income (AGI), we included them, some of them possibly cancer-treatment related.

It was probably, again for most of us, a routine undertaking. The same sorts of health treatment and/or medication use deductions that we may have claimed in earlier years.

But since we're now coming to the end of tax season (next week), perhaps it would be a little interesting, and maybe even a little fun, to take a look at some of the features of deducting medical expenses.

Especially some of the things that may NOT, per the IRS, be deducted, to our amusement.

But first some basics of deducting medical expenses, which most of us probably already know, from this CPA website:

https://www.bsgm.com/tax-accounting/being-prepared-for-an-irs-audit-the-deductibility-of-medical-expenses/

When there, scroll down to "The Deductibility of Medical Expenses"

which tells us that in addition to what we imagine would normally qualify as medically deductible,

(See "What Medical Expenses Are Includible" in left-side column, on this IRS website page) :

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p502

one may also claim such things as

Health insurance premiums. "Even if your employer provides health coverage, you can deduct the portion of the premiums that you pay, unless you paid them pre-tax."

Long-term care insurance premiums. " ... are also included as medical expenses, subject to limits based on age."

Transportation costs. "The cost of getting to and from medical treatments counts as a medical expense. This includes taxi fares, public transportation or using your own car ... plus tolls and parking."

"Amounts paid for participating in smoking-cessation programs and for prescribed drugs designed to alleviate nicotine withdrawal are deductible."

"A weight-loss program is deductible if undertaken as treatment for a disease diagnosed by a physician. Deductible expenses include fees paid to join a program and attend periodic meetings. The cost of diet food isn’t deductible."

(Other) : " ... the costs of glasses, hearing aids, dental work, mental health counseling and other ongoing expenses in connection with medical needs."

And we can also note that the above IRS site, again leftmost column, also notes some of the things that are NOT eligible to be deducted:

(See under: "What Expenses Aren't includible," left side, above IRS page)

to include such things as:

"Purely cosmetic expenses generally don’t qualify."

"Nonprescription nicotine gum and patches (for quitting smoking) aren’t (qualifying)."

" ... over-the-counter medications and vitamins don’t (qualify)."

" ... amounts paid for treatments that are illegal under federal law (such as medical marijuana), even if state law permits them."

And even such things as dancing and swimming lessons:

"You can't include in medical expenses the cost of dancing lessons, swimming lessons, etc., even if they are recommended by a doctor, if they are only for the improvement of general health." --- IRS website.

Finally, I asked Microsoft Bing AI:

does the word cancer appear on any irs forms

and it answered:

"The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not specifically have a form that directly mentions the word “cancer.”

OTOH, maybe it's enough to have only

Publication 502, "Medical and Dental Expenses" :

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-502#:~:text=publication%20502%20explains%20the%20itemized%20deduction%20for%20medical,property%20or%20receive%20damages%20for%20a%20personal%20injury.

and Schedule A, (Form 1040) :

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sa.pdf

for reporting medical expenses in general to the IRS.

Of course it might be argued that requiring a form to be submitted to the IRS listing all the costs of one's financial experience in dealing with cancer, might, if completed and submitted by millions of taxpayers, provide a gold mine of data, ready to be studied and analyzed by researchers.

OTOH, we wouldn't want to do something that would have the IRS generate another form for us to fill out and submit, now would we?

Such as

Form 1345-CANCER-ITEMIZE ("Itemization of Cancer-Specific Treatment and Medication Expenses Per Taxpayer Voluntary Reporting")

I doubt any of us would want to sign up for completing and submitting that.

Nope, let's just keep things the way they are now.

I am married to a CPA so I haven’t seen out tax return in about 40 years. She tells me to keep a receipt for everything I purchase and I place them in a basket in her home office. She runs the household on QuickBooks and tracks everything into som category. She did tell me that for the 6 months or so between the time my AUS started leaking and when I had to new one activates, the incontinence pads were deductible as a medical expense.

That said, while she does not disclose and personally identifying information about her clients, she does have stories to tell about the things some want to deduct as medical expenses. Dietary supplements are a big one. In one case they tried to tell her that the supplements were “prescribed” by a doctor but it turned out that the doctor was a chiropractor and was “prescribing” a dietary supplement that are only sold through chiropractors. Then there are those who want to deduct the cost of fuel and usage of their car when they have to drive to a doctor’s appointment (10 minutes trip.)