Remember that if you have enough Medical Expenses, mentioning them on your Federal Tax returns might be worth mentioning.
Last year (2010) was a bigger year for medical expenses for me because of the following:
- One of my daughters ruptured her ACL, and there were a fair amount of expenses there, including a brace and physiotherapy.
- I needed physiotherapy for my knee due to my getting old
- My other daughter also had physio
- Some visits to a Psychologist for educational skills testing for my kids
- Occupational Therapy for another kid
Now, a great deal of this was covered under my health plan, but only up to 80% of the expense was covered, and there was a limit to how much was paid for the year.
All of this adds up to over $ 7,000 in expenses, but I must also include the compensation I received from my health insurance. It may add up to nothing, but it is something to think about.
How was I able to know this? I checked on my Quicken, of course (sorry for the blatant plug, but it is actually the case in this instance). I put it all into my TurboTax (or you could use UFile as well) and it was easy enough to put it all in too (another blatant plug, but stay tuned there will be a giveaway coming too).
It is a good idea to file tax returns for medical expenses. For that, it requires to make investment in small business health plan. With the health insurance, we can save upto 80% of medical expense incurred on some unfortunate mishappenings occurred in future. It is also very helpful for those who have recurring medical expense, in saving their income in paying tax upto significant level.pretaxhealth.com
BTW dont assume that because one or two people you know e-filed with medical expenses and had no problem that yours will go the same. They spot check and it’s quicker in the end to just paper file, wait the extra bit of time and avoid the possible hassle and stress of dealing with a probably very tired CRA rep at tax time. I know.
Interesting advice, Thanks.
Due to ongoing medical issues we’ve had to claim many thousands in medical expenses each year for a few years. As small business owners we dont have private health insurance. We could but the cost has been prohibitive to us. We have friends who years ago went racked up close to $500,000 in medical costs for thier son who was born with a heart defect. Sadly, we didnt know them then and no one advised them to keep certain reciepts to claim AND by the time we had told them it was too late for them to back track. We have now told all of our friends to do this. They may not have enough but who knows. Luckily we have a chartered accountant we trust who helps us through this process and even a very audit one year of the reciepts. My tip? Keep a folder labeled “Taxes Medical” and throw everything in there. Keep a log of any and all non-local travel mileage with details of doctor/ hospital etc. Label parking receipts as well. As always educate yourself and use our CA’s advice to save the headache of a rejection/ return of an e-file submission if medical expenses are involved and paper file with original receipts attached – the higher the expenses the more this advice applies…TRUST ME. Been there. Done that. Could teach a class. Here is a link to CRA’s webpage for guidlines: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/ddctns/lns300-350/330/llwbl-eng.html.
Good tips – I didn’t know we could do this (not like we need to this year) – but good to know!
Best of luck with the giveaway. We have one for a similar product right now as well (though it isn’t getting the attention we’d hoped!)
Everyone seems to be giving away Tax Software these days.