Claim back 20% of your medical expenses

By Anne Reilly, founder and CEO of PaycheckPlus

Nobody likes to be sick and having to pay for professional fees and prescriptions only adds to our misery. So its helps to know that we can claim tax relief of 20% of all qualifying expenses.

All you need to do to claim Medical expenses is download and complete a Med 1 Form. Certain dental expenses can also be claimed by completing a Med 2 Form. You can also submit a claim online via PAYE anytime.

Tax relief is only granted in respect of costs actually incurred and therefore, any costs, which are paid for by medical insurance, compensation or otherwise, do not qualify for relief.

So what Medical Expenses can be included?

Qualifying health expenses includes the following:

• doctors’ and consultants’ fees
• diagnostic procedures carried out on the advice of a practitioner
• drugs or medicines prescribed by a doctor, dentist, or consultant
• maintenance or treatment in a hospital in connection with the services of a practitioner
• diagnostic procedures carried out on the advice of a practitioner
• supply, maintenance or repair of any medical, surgical, dental or nursing appliance used on the advice of a practitioner
• physiotherapy or similar treatment prescribed by a practitioner
• orthoptic or similar treatment prescribed by a practitioner
• speech and language therapy carried out by a Speech and Language Therapist for a qualifying person

– note Speech and Language Therapist means an individual approved by the Minister for Health and Children and the claim must relate to a person under 18 years of age or if over 18 the individual must be receiving full-time instruction at any university, college, school or other educational establishment

• transport by ambulance
• educational psychological assessments for a qualifying person as outlined above for Speech and Language Therapist. Note the Educational Psychologist must be entered on a register maintained by the Minister for Education and Skills
• Certain items of expenditure in respect of a child suffering from a serious life threatening illness
• kidney patients’ expenses (up to a maximum amount depending on whether the patient uses hospital dialysis, home dialysis or CAPD).
• specialised dental treatment
• ‘In vitro’ fertilisation.

Dental Expenses

So which dental treatment expenses qualify for tax relief?

• Relief is available in respect of non-routine dental treatment. Routine dental treatment is not allowable i.e. the extraction, scaling and filling of teeth and the provision and repairing of artificial teeth or dentures. These are excluded from relief even if there is an underlying medical condition that gives rise to the dental treatment or if the treatment in a particular case is considered to be of a non-routine nature.
• If, however, the treatment is, for example, of an orthodontic nature, involving the extraction of a tooth as part of that treatment, relief would be allowed for the cost of the orthodontic treatment excluding the cost of the extraction.
• An exception to this rule is the cost of the surgical extraction of impacted wisdom teeth carried out either in a hospital or in a dental surgery, which is allowable.
• An individual claiming relief on Form Med 1 for non-routine dental treatment must hold a Form Med 2 (Dental) which is signed and certified by the dental practitioner. The forms are supplied to dentists through the Irish Dental Association.

It’s time to gather your medical receipts and take out the calculator!