Tax question

[Scott P]

I always do my own taxes and usually it is a piece of cake for me, even when doing itemized deductions. You can usually search for everything on the irs.gov site. Here's one I can't find. The IRS phone puts you on hold forever, so I'm wondering if anyone has run into this.

Our medical out of pocket medical expenses were $64,463.04 for 2017. The issue is that I haven't finished paying for it all yet. I'm still paying the hospital to spread out two of the bills until 2/8/2019, while the others were paid for by year end.

I assume I can only deduct the payments to date vs. the total bill that is to be paid? I think this is the case, but since it's going to make a big difference on our taxes, I thought I'd ask.

I guess I can always have someone else do our taxes, but I'd hate to do that just for this one question.

[Iceaxe]

Schedule A - Report the total medical expense you paid for the year on line 1.

I'm not a tax expert but it seems pretty clear to me as it says 'paid' and not 'billed'. So you can only claim what has actually been paid in 2017.

I had this same deal with my daughter a few years back when she knocked out her front teeth. I paid all the medical bills I could before years end to push the biggest deduction I could into one year.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips...axes/L1htkVqq9

[Scott P]

Thanks Shane. That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure.

PS, I think you said that you had an HSA? Who did you go through to get one?

Thanks.

[Iceaxe]

Thanks Shane. That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure.

PS, I think you said that you had an HSA? Who did you go through to get one?

Thanks.

We went a different direction then HSA, but I still think that's the way to go under the current system. At the time I thought the GOP would fix our healthcare system, or at least tilt it back more in my favor. The current system sucks for me. I pay twice as much for half the coverage since Obamacare.