Watch your wallet: the median cost in 2018 for an assisted living facility was $48,000 and over $100,000 for nursing home care. If you could deduct these expenses, you’d substantially reduce your income tax liability—possibly down to $0—and dramatically reduce your financial burden from these costs. As you might expect, the rules are complicated as to when you can deduct these expenses. But I’m going to give you some tips to help you understand the rules. Medical Expenses in General You can deduct expenses paid for the medical care of yourself, your spouse, and your dependents, but only to the extent the total expenses exceed 10 percent of your adjusted gross income. Medical care includes qualified long-term care services. Assisted living and nursing home expenses can be qualified long-term care expenses, depending on the health status of the person living in the facility. If you operate a business, with the right circumstances, through your business we can help you turn the medical expenses into deductions. Qualified Long-Term Care Services The term “qualified long-term care services” means necessary diagnostic, preventive, therapeutic, curing, treating, mitigating, and rehabilitative services, and maintenance or personal care services, which:
Examples of standby assistance include being ready to
Cognitive Impairment Test Severe cognitive impairment is a loss or deterioration in intellectual capacity that is comparable to, and includes, Alzheimer’s disease and similar forms of irreversible dementia, and measured by clinical evidence and standardized tests that reliably measure impairment in the individual’s short- or long-term memory; orientation as to person, place, and time; and deductive or abstract reasoning. Substantial supervision is continual supervision (which may include cuing by verbal prompting, gestures, or other demonstrations) by another person that is necessary to protect the severely cognitively impaired individual from threats to his or her health or safety (such as may result from wandering). If this sounds like something you will benefit from give us a call and we can make sure all your ducks are in a row so that you can take this deduction.
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Spencer Accounting Group, LLC does not provide investment, tax, legal, or retirement advice or recommendations in these blogs. The information presented here is not specific to any individual's personal circumstances. AuthorKeana Spencer is an Accountant, Entrepreneur, and Educator to her clients, with a strong passion. Keana has over 10 years of experience and through her practice, she is a source of knowledge and strategies to her clients. |