I hope someone can help me with this. I am a self pay lap bander. I would really love to use the surgery as a deduction on my income taxes, but since it was elective I don't know if it would be a legitimate deduction.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

It is not elective if your doctor deems it as medically necessary for your health.

Your best bet is to get a hold of a tax consultant or check with IRS.gov You can use the IRS search tool for your questions.

Sorry I cannot be much more help than that

Assuming you had a doctor's diagnosis of a medical condition, including obesity (and you would have had to, to have surgery in the US), your surgery should be deductible, but only the amount that exceeds 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. So: if your AGI was $50,000, 7.5% of that is $3750. If your surgery cost $12,000, you could deduct $12,000 minus $3750 = a deduction of $8250.

Disclaimer: I am not a CPA or a tax attorney - I'm just really good with Google. I would suggest using TaxCut, TurboTax, or another software program to do your taxes, if you don't want to hire a professional. That way you'll be sure to get the math right.

This is an interesting topic, thanks for bringing it up. The responses are very helpful.

I am a CPA (but I don't specialize in taxes) but this is a pretty basic tax question. If you met your doctors requirements for the surgery then you probably can deduct the cost. You can deduct all medical expenses that are in excess of 7.5% of your AGI. Keep in mind this is a deduction not a credit so this would be a reduction of your taxable income. Just to be sure you didn't use a health saving account, because then you couldn't get the tax benefit in both places. I have attached a link to an IRS Tax Topic report that explains the deduction.

Tax Topics - Topic 502 Medical and Dental Expenses

Hope this helps

Thank you all for your help!

Woo Hoo, BIGGER tax refund!:thumbup: