8549 / When is an individual taxpayer entitled to a deduction for a dependent's medical expenses?

Editor's Note: For tax years beginning after 2020 the medical expense deduction is allowed only to the extent that such expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income for the tax year. The 7.5 percent floor was made permanent in the 2021 CAA.

A taxpayer can deduct the medical expenses paid for a dependent (within the specified limits, see Q 8548) even though the taxpayer is not entitled to a dependency exemption (although the personal exemption was suspended for 2018-2025, and eliminated entirely with the 2025 OBBB, the relevant standard still applies). The fact that the dependent's income for the year exceeds the annual personal exemption amount was immaterial so long as the taxpayer has furnished over one-half of his support during that tax year. A child of parents who are divorced (or in some situations, separated) and who between them provide more than one-half of the child's support for the calendar year and have custody of the child for more than one-half of the calendar year will be treated as a dependent of both parents for purposes of this deduction.¹ In the case of a multiple support agreement, however, only the person designated to take the dependency exemption (prior to 2018) may deduct the dependent's medical expenses, and then only to the extent that the designated person actually paid the expenses.² See Q 8520 for a discussion of which parent is entitled to take the dependency exemption.

IRS has privately ruled that taxpayers could deduct special education tuition for their children as a medical care expense where the children attended a school primarily to receive medical care in the form of special education and each child had been diagnosed as having a medical condition that handicapped the child's ability to learn in the years in which tuition was paid.³