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Lapband used as a tax reduction?


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The way to get the most tax benefit out of it, if your employer makes the option available, is to pay for the surgery using a flexible spending account. FSA's allow you to have money held out of each paycheck, before taxes, and then to use that money to pay for medical expenses. Generally, the maximum per person you can set aside is five thousand dollars, but as long as you've signed up to contribute that amount over the course of the year, the entire 5k is available to you on January 1. By using an FSA, the entire amount you spend is tax free. When I had my lap band surgery in '08, I contributed the maximum amount, as did my wife, so my surgery was tax free (not just anything above 7% of my income). The only thing the plan asked for was a signed statement from my doctor saying that the surgery was medically necessary--which Dr. Ortiz was happy to provide.
I guess that's good if you work for someone. I'm not sure it would work for me...

I'm a stay @ home mom. My husband works for himself. We pay our own insurance from our business

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Well pooh on him! People get tax deductions for buying a certain type of car, putting energy efficient windows in their house and buying energy efficient furnaces because those items are all helping out with the environment. Well, my lap band is helping out with the environment as well. I eat less therefore I generate less trash and I generate less heat being put into the atmosphere because I have less stuff rubbing together. That last one might have been a little bit of a stretch, but if the government allows tax deductions for elective surgeries and he doesn't like it he is well within his right to contact his congressman. He probably wouldn't like paying for my Medicaid in later years either if I were too obese to work and had to be on assistance. Okay, jumping off of my soap box now.

LOL :lol:

Thanks

That was funny

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Yeah I see- I went back and was reading! Oh well

It doesn't take much to get a doctor to say you need a tummy tuck or any WLS related plastic surgery. That's usually the first step in trying to get insurance approval. But most insurance companies will deny you,, but you still end up with the letter.

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  • 6 months later...

Okay, I need help guys and I want to know if you think I should get a second opinion and ride this thing to the wheels fall off or take what H&R Block told me at face value?

I am head of household with one dependent and I was told that in order to claim the medical from the lap band that I would need the following

1. The expenses have to total over 7.5% of my gross earning AND I could only claim the portion that was actually over the 7.5% AND NOT THE FULL AMOUNT, which in my case is only about $3500.00 roughly.

2. The expenses could only be claimed on a "schedule A" which is also used to itemize property expenses and charitable donations. BUT in order to use a schedule A my total deductions would have to exceed $8350.00 (head of household with 1 dependent) otherwise the form cannot be completed and I cannot claim out of pocket medical expenses for the band.

So I need $5000 - 5500.00 more in deductions to complete schedule A! But I rent an apartment and I cannot think of any major charitable donations that would equal $5000.00.

According to H&R Block this is the way it works, take it or leave it. I have never used them before but I do not want to use the tax people I have been using for the last 6 years since I had a really bad customer service issue with them today that is basically unforgivable.

Does this sound kosher? Am I interpreting this correctly? I am really depressed right now over this. I thought for sure I could deduct the procedure and I was actually depending on being able to deduct it, but it sounds like since I am not a home owner and cant afford to be (not in southern California anyway) I am screwed royally.

Please, please, please advise or share your opinion...

earning aside, I am especially eager to hear from ANYONE who was able to deduct this and also filing head of household while renting as oppossed to owning property. Please share if you fall into this catagory

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Okay, I need help guys and I want to know if you think I should get a second opinion and ride this thing to the wheels fall off or take what H&R Block told me at face value?

I am head of household with one dependent and I was told that in order to claim the medical from the lap band that I would need the following

1. The expenses have to total over 7.5% of my gross earning AND I could only claim the portion that was actually over the 7.5% AND NOT THE FULL AMOUNT, which in my case is only about $3500.00 roughly.

2. The expenses could only be claimed on a "schedule A" which is also used to itemize property expenses and charitable donations. BUT in order to use a schedule A my total deductions would have to exceed $8350.00 (head of household with 1 dependent) otherwise the form cannot be completed and I cannot claim out of pocket medical expenses for the band.

So I need $5000 - 5500.00 more in deductions to complete schedule A! But I rent an apartment and I cannot think of any major charitable donations that would equal $5000.00.

According to H&R Block this is the way it works, take it or leave it. I have never used them before but I do not want to use the tax people I have been using for the last 6 years since I had a really bad customer service issue with them today that is basically unforgivable.

Does this sound kosher? Am I interpreting this correctly? I am really depressed right now over this. I thought for sure I could deduct the procedure and I was actually depending on being able to deduct it, but it sounds like since I am not a home owner and cant afford to be (not in southern California anyway) I am screwed royally.

Please, please, please advise or share your opinion...

earning aside, I am especially eager to hear from ANYONE who was able to deduct this and also filing head of household while renting as oppossed to owning property. Please share if you fall into this catagory

Unfortunately, all of that sounds right to me. Although I'm not a CPA, I do have a BS in accounting and look at tax returns almost everyday for my work. I also understand enough about my tax returns that I know about the Schedule A and being able to deduct only the difference of total expenses and 7.5% of AGI (adjusted gross income) - believe me, I have a chronic sinusitis problem that will reap hefty medical bills some years. I know that when we rented, we didn't have enough $$ itemized to use a schedule A because the standard deduction was far above our total from "A" and also because of the stipulation of the medical expenses w/ the difference of the 7.5% makes it really hard to claim that way.

Fortunately, I stumbled across this life changing event right before our open enrollment period at work and was able to contribute into my Flex Spending Account (FSA) for part of the surgery and I will hopefully be able to use my husband's Health Savings Account (HSA) for the difference (FSA max contribution is $5,000.) Although my FSA administrator said that the flights, hotel stays, etc. were not covered since this procedure is available in the US - I disagree since I wouldn't qualify if I went to a Dr. here even though I'm obese. I didn't fight it because it didn't matter due to being maxed out anyway, but it might be a battle I fight w/ my husband's HSA administrators. We'll see how that goes when the time comes. It will be a while before we'll have enough $$ built up in that to pull out the difference from the cost of surgery vs. my $5k FSA account. Overall, w/ just the OCC bill, I should save approx. $2K. I'm such a tight wad, if I would have found out about the OCC on Jan. 1 - I probably would have made myself wait an entire year so I could use the FSA! Oh, and the FSA did require a letter from my Dr. here saying that it was a medical necessity and said they would not accept one from Dr. Ortiz. Luckily my doc did it for me, but since I was signing up for all this during open enrollment and if you contribute and don't use it, you lose it, it was a little stressful because I didn't think she would do it.

I hope I made sense!

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I think there is a general misconception floating around this board and a lot of other places that the band can easily be deducted by anyone. Granted, maybe I was the only one who believed it (being that I never filed a schedule A in my life) but I want to dispell the misconception now in case someone else comes along who is just as naïve as I am.

7.5% of my adjusted gross income would be about $4,425. Our medical expenses for last year were approximately $7550 (including all band related ones) for me and my dependent. My understanding is that I would be able to deduct approximately $3,125 since this is the amount OVER 7.5%. But since the standard deduction for head of household with dependent is $8,350 I would have to come up with about $5,225 more in additional itemized expenditures (property, charity, vehicle registration fees) in order to take the itemized medical expenses.

My situation may be specific to me but I do not think it is uncommon. I have several factors working against me here that do not allow me or people in similar circumstance to deduct the band:

1. I am head of household vrs. being single I am a single parent and the head of the house which make my standard deduction 8.3K vrs 5K if I did not have any dependents.

2. I do not own property and I rent Although I make a healthy living, I make what I make because I live in a major metropolitan area that pays better then average for what I do, however the down side is I cant afford to purchase property in my area based on my income.

3. Our family unit had very little out-of-pocket medical expenses last year

All this being said, a single mother renting an apartment and working full time to support herself and her child cannot deduct being banded because she makes too much money but cant afford to buy property and was really healthy for 2009 otherwise. Things that make you go hmmmmm.

What ever happened to deductions and tax incentives for the middle class?

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Just another price I pay for living in the big city. And so the saga continues with...

Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl's Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me? - Jen Lancaster

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