1. Travel expenses to and from medical treatments. The IRS evaluates the standard cents-per-mile allowance each year. For 2007, you can deduct eligible medical travel at 20 cents per mile; it's 19 cents per mile for 2008.
2. Insurance payments from already taxed income. This includes the cost of long-term care insurance, up to certain limits based on your age.
3. Uninsured medical treatments, such as an extra pair of eyeglasses or set of contact lenses, false teeth, hearing aids and artificial limbs.
4. Costs of alcohol- or drug-abuse treatments can be counted on your Schedule A.
5. Laser vision corrective surgery is a tax-allowable procedure.
6. Medically necessary costs prescribed by a physician. That means if your doctor told you to add a humidifier to your home's heating and air conditioning system to relieve your chronic breathing problems, the device (and additional electricity costs to operate it) could be at least partially deductible.
7. Some medical conference costs. You can count admission and transportation expenses to the conference if it concerns a chronic illness suffered by you, your spouse or a dependent. Meals and lodging costs while at the seminar, however, are not deductible.
Have a question about your medical expenses? Visit TurboTax Online to see how you can maximize your tax return. TurboTax online offers tax deduction calculators at no charge.
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