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People with disabilities often have a much greater range of potential expenses to deduct when tax time rolls around. As is the case for other taxpayers, expenses must exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) to be deductible.  (For example, if you have an AGI of $40,000, your annual medical expenses must total $3,000 or more to be deductible.)

If your medical and dental expenses for the year have exceeded the 7.5% requirement, however, there are many items that qualify as deductions.

For starters, consider these medical expenses:

• All expenses related to artificial limbs
• Braille books and magazines for the visually impaired
• Special equipment installed in the home (includes widening and moving stairways, special ramps/motorized ramps for homes with stairs)
• Special hand controls and other special equipment for car if taxpayer has a disability
• Chiropractor care
• Contact lenses (including saline solution and enzyme cleaner)
• Crutches
• Dental care
• Diagnostic services
• Guide dogs and/or other animals (including training and maintenance)
• Health institutes (must have a statement from a doctor)
• Hearing aids
• Inpatient care
• Insurance premiums
• Lodging and meals at a hospital and/or institution
• Long term care
• Medical conferences that focus on information about a chronic illness
• Nursing homes
• Nursing services
• Oxygen
• Psychiatric care
• Psychologist
• Special educational expenses
• TTY and TDD equipment
• Cost of equipment for special televisions
• Therapy
• Mileage to and from treatment (at a rate of 20 cents/mile)
• Transplants
• Medical expenses for weight loss (see 4 below)
• Wigs (purchased on the advice of a physician)
• Weight loss expenses related to a directive from your physician to lose weight
• Specific treatments for weight-related diseases diagnosed by a physician

In addition to these medical and dental expenses, you may also be able to deduct some home improvement expenses, under the following circumstances:

• The main purpose of the home improvement must be for medical care
• The cost of improvement is offset by the increased value of the home (for example: your improvements cost $5,000 and the value of your home increased from $143,000 to $145,000, which means the improvements increased the value of the home by $2,000. The deductible expenses will be $3,000, or the difference between the amount you paid for improvements and the amount those improvements increased your home’s value.

And what about car deductions? The expenses incurred when retrofitting or adapting a vehicle can be substantial, so  it’s wise to pay attention to the tax impacts here.

Specifically, you may deduct:

• The difference between the cost of a regular car and a car designed to hold a wheelchair (for example, if a regular van costs $15,000 and you purchase an adapted van that will hold your wheel chair for $26,000, you may deduct the $11,000 difference between the two).
• Special hand controls and other special equipment

So, with all of the expenses that are deductible, what is not deductible?  A general rule of thumb is that if something’s a necessary part of your life and the expense is recommended by a physician, it’s a deductible expense.

And remember: it’s a good idea to always keep and be able to produce all the documentation related to any deductible expense. You may need to provide this documentation during an audit; if you don’t have your receipts and other documentation, the expense could be denied, resulting in having to repay the original amount deducted plus penalties and interest to the IRS.

Still unsure of what you can and can’t deduct? Then check out the IRS website at  www.IRS.gov; the publication for medical expenses is Publication 502, found on the Web site under “Forms and Publications.”