Hi all. Tried to find this by searching, and came up with nothing. I know "money" isn't a popular topic for many of us, but I'm curious to know... Have any of you used your surgery as a tax write-off? I looked at the IRS website today after someone I know who doesn't have insurance was talking about writing off their bypass surgery. I looked at the IRS website, and under Publication 502, here's what I found:

Weight-Loss Program

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You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay to lose weight if it is a treatment for a specific disease diagnosed by a physician (such as obesity, hypertension, or heart disease). This includes fees you pay for membership in a weight reduction group and attendance at periodic meetings. You cannot include membership dues in a gym, health club, or spa as medical expenses, but you can include separate fees charged there for weight loss activities.

Ok, so my real question is... if we go to Mexico (or wherever outside the U.S.) can we still use this as a deduction? Anyone have the info on this? Here's hoping this is doable. Any accountants in the house??

My surgeon gave me a receipt and a letter stating what I had paid because they did tell me I would need it at tax time as a write-off. My mom paid for my surgery so I will give her the receipt and letter for her to file at tax time.

Yep, got my reciept and medical expenses on the tax return will be a bit more hefty this year. I don't know exactly how it works but we have an accountant do our taxes (hubby is self-employed so the accountant is a real need in our house!) so she'll know what to do. I'm planning on it!!

Insurance paid for me, so no bax break. Love those golden handcuffs

Yes, you can deduct it if you itemize. The amount of medical expenses you can deduct must exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. To itemize, your itemized expenses must exceed the standard deduction - $4850 for singles $9700 for married in 2004. Make sure you have your receipts and a letter from the your doctor saying this is medically necessary. Just to be on the safe side, I am using letters from the primary care physician and the surgeon.

Celeste

I took the tax break last year, and it made a huge difference in our taxes. There is an article on here about it too.

Betty,

Can you direct me to the article... couldn't find it. Thanks!

are you all saying that if you had to pay for your own lap band you can get a tax break?

yes...check out Publication 502 on the irs.gov website. i was just hoping for a clarification as to if having the surgery in a foreign country would make me ineligible?

Thanks for all your help!

bumping for a friend... bump bump bump

I am also self-pay and hoping I can take it off my taxes. Any more info on this would be great!

There are two other ways to get a tax break on the money spent on a lap-band. If you are in a high-deductible as defined by the IRS, you can save money in an HSA with tax-free dollars without itemizing and use the funds in your HSA to pay for your surgery. You will not be able to put the full amount away in one year, but the law will allow you to reimburse yourself with future funds from your HSA as long as you were in a "high-deductible" medical plan and had an HSA open down the line - in other words you can reimburse yourself over years.

Also, you may have the option of putting money away in your FSA through your employer and that would allow you to put away money for your lap-band tax free as well.

Good luck!!!

Thanks for the help... so if we don't have those options (FSA HSA) the other route is still good? Just making sure. thanks again.

I'm about to show my ignorance: what exactly does this tax break mean? Does it mean you get part of your money back? Or (gasp!) ALL of your money?

Dangit, every time I calm down about this, I get all excited again. I'd resigned myself to waiting until the spring to get banded so the HMO portion of my insurance would pay for the whole thing. My other option is to have the PPO portion of my insurance pay for it and that would be just under $5,000. I have a consult next week just for informative purposes, but if I thought I could get my $5,000 back, I would jump on this like a duck on a junebug! If I could get the surgery done before the end of the year, I could file my taxes in early Feb and have the money back before there’s time to freak out about it.

This site is dangerous!

must calm down…must calm down…must calm down

I'm about to show my ignorance: what exactly does this tax break mean? Does it mean you get part of your money back? Or (gasp!) ALL of your money?

Dangit, every time I calm down about this, I get all excited again. I'd resigned myself to waiting until the spring to get banded so the HMO portion of my insurance would pay for the whole thing. My other option is to have the PPO portion of my insurance pay for it and that would be just under $5,000. I have a consult next week just for informative purposes, but if I thought I could get my $5,000 back, I would jump on this like a duck on a junebug! If I could get the surgery done before the end of the year, I could file my taxes in early Feb and have the money back before there’s time to freak out about it.

This site is dangerous!

must calm down…must calm down…must calm down

ETA - crud. I figured it out. You can only deduct the amount that's greater than 7.5% of your gross income. Rats. Looks like I'm waiting until spring. Geez, I wish I could just get on with this already.

For anyone interested, you can read the rules here:http://www.irs.gov/publications/p502/ar02.html#d0e288

Sleepyjean... Ok, so I get it now. You take the adjusted gross income, multiply that by 7.5% and that gives you the amount you have to subtract from what you paid. That the amount that is available for deduction. I looked at my taxes from last year, and even the amount left over will help me a lot. Yahoo! lovin it... Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!