How to Itemise Your Medical Expenses on Your Taxes

This post is a guest post from my friend Tiffany. See her bio at the end and do check out her blog. The post may contain affiliate links.

Why do you want to save money?

For me, my quest for living frugally began shortly after my marriage. Our plan had been for my husband to finish his last year of undergrad and apply to grad school while I taught middle school math to support us.

Instead, my health took a nose dive and I was hospitalized 13 times. While we had health insurance, those expenses quickly added up! We were drowning in medical debt – each time I had to go to the ER, it cost an entire week’s paycheck.

We’ve never wanted to set up an FSA or something similar; the fear of losing that money at the end of the year was too much of a stress. One of the biggest things that helped, though, was discovering we could itemize our medical expenses on our taxes!

A lot of people are nervous about filing taxes and it is not easier when you have to deal with medical expenses too. Read this post on how to itemise medical expenses on your taxes.There's a free spreadsheet to help too.

When tax season rolled around, I eagerly opened my YNAB budgeting program and logged into Turbo Tax, ready to enter the amount of my “Medical Expenses” budget category. Easy, right?

No, it wasn’t easy. Nothing with taxes ever is.

Silly me.

Instead of one lump sum of “medical expenses,” there were separate places to enter prescriptions, facility expenses, lab work charges, doctor bills, and more! Instead of a 30-second entry, I had to spend dozens of hours combing through my budget and sorting the entries.

Luckily for all of you, you can benefit from my mistake! After spending hours fixing this disaster, I made this spreadsheet (which I’m providing to you for free!) with each

You can download a FREE copy of the spreadsheet HERE!

Here are the current categories for deducting medical expenses:

Prescriptions: Co-pays for prescriptions, insulin, birth control pills, arthritis painkillers, asthma inhalers
Medical Professionals: Dentists and doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, acupuncturists
Facilities: Nursing and retirement homes, inpatient rehab centers, sanitariums, hospitals and clinics
X-Rays and Lab Work: Blood tests, cardiographs, metabolism tests, urine analysis
Long-Term Care: Personal care, rehabilitation, therapy
Glasses and Contacts: Exam fees, saline solution, enzymatic cleaner, eye surgery and vision correction
Supplies and Equipment: Hearing aids, oxygen, braille supplies, crutches
Travel Expenses: Miles driven; bus, parking, taxi, etc.; lodging expenses
Insurance Premiums: Separate by person and if it’s long-term
Other: Anything else that does not fit into the other categories

In this spreadsheet, I put each of these categories in their own tab. At the top, you can get the total for each category. On the first tab, you will also get the total amount spent in all of the categories.

The only category that is a bit different is travel expenses. Each time you drive to the doctor, etc. then put the mileage in the same line where you enter the bill. If there is no bill, then add it as a separate line in the Travel Expenses tab. The reason you want to keep track of miles is that you can deduct a certain amount per mile you travelled in your car (in 2017, that amount is $.17 per mile).

I hope that this spreadsheet is useful to you! Having medical expenses is difficult enough as it is; you shouldn’t have to worry about them more than you have to.

Tiffany is a former math teacher and SAHM with Crohn’s disease who loves finding good deals! She and her husband, who is an engineer, work together on The Crazy Shopping Cart. They enjoy spending time with their family, geeking out over sci-fi, and saving money.

I really hope you now know how to itemise your medical expenses on your taxes. In the meantime, do enjoy the sunshine and eat healthy to do what you can to maintain good health.

Grammarly

Comments

Rawlings says

January 31, 2018 at 1:40 pm

This helps to understand how taxes affect our finance and most times in debt when your money is not well- planned out. Thanks

https://rawlingsunday.wordpress.com/2018/01/28/4-ways-to-budget-your-money/

Natalie says

February 1, 2018 at 2:41 pm

Perfectly timed as I prepare to do my taxes this weekend!

Heather says

February 1, 2018 at 6:09 pm

I’m extremely thankful to have always been in very good health. Still, the information in this post was very valuable knowledge to have.

- Joleisa says
  
  February 3, 2018 at 7:03 am
  
  Touch wood, your health remains immaculate, but just in case it doesn’t, you know what to do regarding your taxes.
  
Marie says

February 2, 2018 at 3:06 am

Great and helpful info here. I always save all our medical bills & receipts to give to our accountant. We do the FSA because we’re able to carry over up to $500 a year so it works out well for us.

Heather says

February 2, 2018 at 5:24 pm

Thanks for sharing these tips and the spreadsheet. Medical expenses and tracking can be such a headache!

- Joleisa says
  
  February 3, 2018 at 6:53 am
  
  I agree. I think it’s something I will always need help with.
  
Tammy says

February 2, 2018 at 6:30 pm

;Great explanation and yes. Keep up with your mileage. It does add up everything you go on a round trip.

It will be interesting to see how these deductions will work for 2018 taxes next year since the standard deduction is doubled for 2018.

Tanya says

February 2, 2018 at 6:58 pm

Thank you for the valuable advice- we should have taxes as a subject in school!

Kimberly says

February 8, 2018 at 3:55 am

This is actually super helpful! Thank you for putting all this together!

digitutes says

February 8, 2018 at 11:01 am

Its really helpful to calculate medical bills…thanks for sharing