Question:
tax break???

If you have taken drastic measures to lose weight under doctor's orders, Uncle Sam wants to reward you with a tax deduction. The Associated Press reports that the Internal Revenue Service will allow taxpayers who spent thousands of dollars due to physician-diagnosed obesity to deduct expenses for stomach-stapling surgery, approved weight-loss drugs, and nutritional counseling. Since the average cost of a gastric-bypass operation is about $25,000 and may not be covered by health insurance, this is good news for many.    — franbvan (posted on March 2, 2004)

March 2, 2004
WOW thatsgreat to know cause I found out my INC after having WLS did not pay for it my med card payed for all it except 4 thous somethig plus I am having to pay for my Dr vsits now so I will be saving all my recepits for that now Thanks for the info Take Care Hugs Beth
   — wildbrat

March 2, 2004
Keep in mind that when deducting Medical Expenses, the amount needs to EXCEED 7.5% of your AGI.
   — heathercross

March 2, 2004
To take this deduction you have to itemize your deductions instead of taking the standard deduction. You have to have enough itemized deductions so that they exceed your standard deduction for it to be beneficial. The standard deduction for Married persons filing jointly is 9500, Single or married filing seperately 4750 and Head of Household is 7000. So you will add all your itemized deduction up by taking all your medical cost and medical mileage (.12 a mile in 2003 and .14 a mile in 2004) and deducting 7.5 percent of your income(AGI) off of it and then adding your mortgage interest, your real estate taxes, personal property taxes, casualty & theft losses and work expenses less 2 percent of your income (AGI).(There are other things you can deduct, for a full list go to the irs.gov website and look at the form Schedule A) Once you get these added together, you see if it adds up to more than your standard deduction listed above. If it does, it would be beneficial for you to itemize. Keep in mind that to be deductable, a weight-loss program or expense must be undertaken to relieve a disease or defect, such as obesity or hypertension (REV. RUL. 2002-19) Cheryl, Tax Specialist, Internal Revenue Service
   — Trin2rilax Cheryl McCoy

March 3, 2004
Since my insurance paid for my bariatric surgery to relieve a medical condition, I was told that I could deduct expenses for plastic surgery. I have lost 186 pounds and have lots of excess skin to be removed. The tax preparer thought I could also deduct mileage to and from MD office.I'm keeping all receipts for meds, MD co-pay etc.
   — Linda Dianne E.

March 5, 2004
A word of warning though: If you try and deduct it on your taxes, be prepared to prove that the plastic surgery was medically necessary and not cosmetic. There's a fine line there because the IRS might consider it cosmetic if your insurance company won't pay for it. Before I tried deducting it I got a letter signed by my reconstructive surgeon specifically stating that in his professional opinion, my surgery was medically necessary and that the ins. co. did not pay for it NOT because they didn't consider it medically necessary, but because it was not a covered benefit of my policy. Good luck to you!
   — Lynette B.

March 5, 2004
We can also deeduct all of our nutritional supplements after surgery. Save all of your receipts for protein bars, shakes, vitamins, etc... The reason we can do this is that these things are medically necessary after the surgery.
   — Carol S.

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