Can I deduct traveling back and forth to doctors appointments on my income taxes?

Answer 1

In order to claim medical expenses, you would need to itemize deductions on Schedule A. Medical expenses must exceed 7.5% of your AGI. With that said, these are deductible medical expenses:

You can include in medical expenses amounts paid for transportation primarily for, and essential to, medical care.

You can include:
Bus, taxi, train, or plane fares or ambulance service,

Transportation expenses of a parent who must go with a child who needs medical care,

Transportation expenses of a nurse or other person who can give injections, medications, or other treatment required by a patient who is traveling to get medical care and is unable to travel alone, and

Transportation expenses for regular visits to see a mentally ill dependent, if these visits are recommended as a part of treatment.


Car expenses. You can include out-of-pocket expenses, such as the cost of gas and oil, when you use a car for medical reasons. You cannot include depreciation, insurance, general repair, or maintenance expenses.

If you do not want to use your actual expenses, for 2006 you can use a standard rate of 18 cents a mile for use of a car for medical reasons.

You can also include parking fees and tolls. You can add these fees and tolls to your medical expenses whether you use actual expenses or use the standard mileage rate

Answer 2

The short answer is: MAYBE. You can only deduct medical related travel in very specific circumstances. Furthermore, you only get to deduct the part of the total that is over 7.5% of your AGI. Also, the mileage reimbursement rate is a joke (18 cents - yippee). Finally, unless you are itemizing, anyway & had a small fortune in uninsured medical expenses, it is rarely worth the trouble to even do all the calculations or gather all the paperwork (receipts, mileage records, etc.)

Answer 3

You can deduct your expenses for traveling to and from doctor's appointments on schedule A as medical expenses if you itemize, and if you have enough medical expenses to deduct them. You can only deduct medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your income, and then only if you itemize.