Can medical expenses be deducted along with the standard deduction?

Question

or do I have to choose 1 or the other?

Answer 1

No, you can either itemize or take the standard deduction.

Medical expenses are subject to a 7.5% AGI limitation so they must exceed 7.5% of your AGI before any of them can be deducted. (Contrary to what another person posted, 7.5% of $100k is $7,500 NOT $17,000! Maybe she's good at repairing ships, but she's LOUSY at simple math.)

If your total itemized deductions exceed your standard deduction amount (which varies based upon your filing status) then you should itemize. If it doesn't, then itemizing doesn't make sense for you.

Answer 2

You choose either the standard deduction, or to itemize deductions, whichever will benefit you more. Medical expenses above 7.5% of your AGI are an itemized deduction.

Answer 3

I think the person who said $17,000 on $100, 000 was assuming that you could take the standard deduction of sonething over $10000 (married filing jointly), or deduct $17,000 -$7500 = $9,500. You would need some additional itemized deductions to make it worth while. The math wasn't bad, just the explanation.

Answer 4

You have to choose one or the other. Medical expenses must be greater than 7% of your AGI so almost nobody has enough to deduct and if you have no other itemized deductions it makes it even harder. So if you earned 100K and were married you would need to have about 17,000 in medical before you would save one cent in taxes.

Answer 5

you can itemize but it cost a lot more to do so...Also you have to have a lot of expences.....like 10.500.00 of expences...call a tax place and they will tell ya free...