Income Taxes - Protein & Vitamin Supplements
Does anyone have any reality on this or have you had any tax advise about this in the past???
Nutritional Supplements
You cannot include in medical expenses the cost of nutritional supplements, vitamins, herbal supplements, “natural medicines,ÂÂ" etc. unless they are recommended by a medical practitioner as treatment for a specific medical condition diagnosed by a physician. Otherwise, these items are taken to maintain your ordinary good health, and are not for medical care.
But then,
Nonprescription Drugs and Medicines
Except for insulin, you cannot include in medical expenses amounts you pay for a drug that is not prescribed.
Example.
Your doctor recommends that you take aspirin. Because aspirin is a drug that does not require a physician's prescription, you cannot include its cost in your medical expenses.
On the one hand they say that something needs to be recommended by a doc to treat a diagnosed medical condition for it to be deductible, but on the other hand, if the doc recommends a non-prescription drug like aspirin, it's not deductible.
My best guess, as a non-professional in the tax game, is that something like your over the counter PPIs might be deductible since it is treating a diagnosed medical condition (and the doc could prescribe a prescription version,) but the general supplements like vitamins and protein shakes would not be. The safest thing is to ask your tax guy how he handles such things, but before even going to that trouble, find out if the those deductions will count - did you self pay for the VSG which means that you will probably be over the 7.5% of adjusted gross income threshold required to deduct med expenses? If you didn't self-pay, or have other major medical expenses that weren't insured, then you probably aren't near that threshold.
Good luck
1st support group/seminar - 8/03 (has it been that long?)
Wife's DS - 5/05 w Dr. Robert Rabkin VSG on 5/9/11 by Dr. John Rabkin
Nevertheless, I think this is a great suggestion for those who are about to have surgery, with a fair bit of out of pocket expense, to consider and especially if these vehicles can in anyway lower or get around the threshold %, for these qualified expenses. (not to helpful for those with awesome insurance plans)
Even though protein and supplements are expensive, claiming them is probably not worth the risk of an audit!