Should you write off your medical bills?

Answer 1

The most professional way I can answer this question is to give you my example of doing my '07 taxes. Even though I was confident about meeting the "7.5" threshold everyone talks about (it means that since i made 20 grand that year i could write off reciepts after approx $1500 to meet the threshold) and my medical/dental bills added up to about 3 grand. Also that same year I moved to a different state for a job so I wrote off 4 grand in movers expenses. After all that .... the record keeping was for nothing. The gov't gives you over 5 grand as a standard deduction if you are single w/ no kids. So, all this record keeping was in vain since TaxCut told me to use the standard deduction saying it is better than itemizing even after all that out of pocket cost. Even though my totals were over 7 grand you only get a fraction of stuff like moving expenses back. I send this response in hopes of keeping people from making the same costly mistakes i did like paying for past bill statements and paying doctors out of pocket at a reduced rate rather than just filing through my work insurance. I thought I'd get money back but even after 3 grand in medical receipts and 4 grand in moving expenses TaxCut still told me to go "standard". It is sad to say but unless you had a major medical condition that you had a to pay a ton of money out of pocket or unless you made very little money that year and still had a handful of medical bills then this medical part of the refund is really just hopes and wishes for a majority of people that could really use and need it. Hope this helps!