Can You Deduct Medical Travel Expenses? A Comprehensive Guide

Are you wondering, “Can You Deduct Medical Travel Expenses” when planning your trip to Vietnam for medical treatment? Yes, understanding the IRS guidelines on deducting medical travel expenses can significantly reduce your tax burden. SIXT.VN is here to guide you through the process of maximizing your deductions while enjoying a seamless travel experience in Vietnam. We offer a range of services, including airport transfers, hotel bookings, and tours, to make your medical trip comfortable and stress-free. Medical travel deductions can be confusing, but we’ll break it down.

1. What Qualifies as Medical Expenses for Tax Deduction?

You can deduct costs associated with diagnosing, curing, mitigating, treating, or preventing disease, and for the purpose of affecting any part or function of the body. This includes payments for legal medical services provided by physicians, surgeons, dentists, and other medical practitioners. According to the IRS, these expenses also encompass the costs of equipment, supplies, and diagnostic devices needed for these purposes.

Medical care expenses must primarily aim to alleviate or prevent a physical or mental disability or illness. They do not include expenses that are merely beneficial to general health, such as vitamins or a vacation.

2. What Medical Travel Expenses Can You Deduct?

You can include transportation costs to get medical care, such as bus, taxi, train, plane fares, or ambulance service. These expenses can be included in your medical expense deduction. According to the IRS, these expenses can significantly reduce your tax burden.

2.1. Car Expenses

You can include out-of-pocket expenses, such as the cost of gas and oil, when you use a car for medical reasons. You can’t include depreciation, insurance, general repair, or maintenance expenses. If you don’t want to use your actual expenses for 2024, you can use the standard medical mileage rate of 21 cents a mile. You can also include parking fees and tolls. You can add these fees and tolls to your medical expenses whether you use actual expenses or the standard mileage rate.

2.2. Transportation Expenses You Can’t Include

You can’t include in medical expenses the cost of transportation in the following situations.

• Going to and from work, even if your condition requires an unusual means of transportation.
• Travel for purely personal reasons to another city for an operation or other medical care.
• Travel that is merely for the general improvement of one’s health.
• The costs of operating a specially equipped car for other than medical reasons.

3. Who Can You Include Medical Expenses For?

You can generally include medical expenses you pay for yourself, as well as those you pay for someone who was your spouse or your dependent either when the services were provided or when you paid for them. The IRS has different rules for decedents and for individuals who are the subject of multiple support agreements.

3.1. Spouse

You can include medical expenses you paid for your spouse. To include these expenses, you must have been married either at the time your spouse received the medical services or at the time you paid the medical expenses.

Example 1.

Your spouse received medical treatment before you were married. You paid for the treatment after getting married. You can include these expenses in figuring your medical expense deduction even if you and your spouse file separate returns.

If your spouse had paid the expenses, you couldn’t include your spouse’s expenses on your separate return. The amounts your spouse paid during the year would be included on their separate return. If you filed a joint return, the medical expenses both of you paid during the year would be used to figure the medical expense deduction.

Example 2.

This year, you paid medical expenses for your spouse, Kitt, who died last year. You married Royal this year and the two of you file a joint return. Because you were married to Kitt when Kitt received the medical services, you can include those expenses in figuring your medical expense deduction for this year.

3.2. Dependent

You can include medical expenses you paid for your dependent. For you to include these expenses, the person must have been your dependent either at the time the medical services were provided or at the time you paid the expenses. A person generally qualifies as your dependent for purposes of the medical expense deduction if both of the following requirements are met.

You can include medical expenses you paid for an individual that would have been your dependent except that:

1. The person received gross income of $5,050 or more in 2024;
2. The person filed a joint return for 2024; or
3. You, or your spouse if filing jointly, could be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s 2024 return.

Exception for adopted child.

If you are a U.S. citizen or national and your adopted child lived with you as a member of your household for 2024, that child doesn’t have to be a U.S. citizen or national, or a resident of the United States, Canada, or Mexico.

3.3. Qualifying Child

A qualifying child is a child who:

1. Is your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, half sister, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your grandchild, niece, or nephew);

2. Was:

   1. Under age 19 at the end of 2024 and younger than you (or your spouse if filing jointly),
   2. Under age 24 at the end of 2024, a full-time student, and younger than you (or your spouse if filing jointly), or
   3. Any age and permanently and totally disabled;

3. Lived with you for more than half of 2024;

4. Didn’t provide over half of their own support for 2024; and

5. Didn’t file a joint return, other than to claim a refund.

Adopted child.

A legally adopted child is treated as your own child. This child includes a child lawfully placed with you for legal adoption.

You can include medical expenses that you paid for a child before adoption if the child qualified as your dependent when the medical services were provided or when the expenses were paid.

If you pay back an adoption agency or other persons for medical expenses they paid under an agreement with you, you are treated as having paid those expenses provided you clearly substantiate that the payment is directly attributable to the medical care of the child.

But if you pay the agency or other person for medical care that was provided and paid for before adoption negotiations began, you can’t include them as medical expenses.

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Child of divorced or separated parents.

For purposes of the medical and dental expenses deduction, a child of divorced or separated parents can be treated as a dependent of both parents. Each parent can include the medical expenses they pay for the child if:

1. The child is in the custody of one or both parents for more than half the year;

2. The child receives over half of the child’s support during the year from the parents; and

3. The child’s parents:

   1. Are divorced or legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance,
   2. Are separated under a written separation agreement, or
   3. Live apart at all times during the last 6 months of the year.

This doesn’t apply if the child’s dependency is being claimed under a multiple support agreement (discussed later).

3.4. Qualifying Relative

A qualifying relative is a person:

1. Who is your:

   1. Son, daughter, stepchild, or foster child, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your grandchild),
   2. Brother, sister, half brother, half sister, or a son or daughter of any of them,
   3. Father, mother, or an ancestor or sibling of either of them (for example, your grandmother, grandfather, aunt, or uncle),
   4. Stepbrother, stepsister, stepfather, stepmother, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law, or
   5. Any other person (other than your spouse) who lived with you all year as a member of your household if your relationship didn’t violate local law,

2. Who wasn’t a qualifying child (see Qualifying Child, earlier) of any taxpayer for 2024, and

3. For whom you provided over half of their support in 2024. But see Child of divorced or separated parents, earlier, Support claimed under a multiple support agreement next, and Kidnapped child under Qualifying Relative in Pub. 501.

Support claimed under a multiple support agreement.

If you are considered to have provided more than half of a qualifying relative’s support under a multiple support agreement, you can include medical expenses you pay for that person. A multiple support agreement is used when two or more people provide more than half of a person’s support, but no one alone provides more than half.

Any medical expenses paid by others who joined you in the agreement can’t be included as medical expenses by anyone. However, you can include the entire unreimbursed amount you paid for medical expenses.

Example.

You and your three siblings each provide one-fourth of your parent’s total support. Under a multiple support agreement, you treat your parent as your dependent. You paid all of your parent’s medical expenses. Your siblings repaid you for three-fourths of these expenses. In figuring your medical expense deduction, you can include only one-fourth of your parent’s medical expenses. Your siblings can’t include any part of the expenses. However, if you and your siblings share the nonmedical support items and you separately pay all of your parent’s medical expenses, you can include the unreimbursed amount you paid for your parent’s medical expenses in your medical expenses.

3.5. Decedent

Medical expenses paid before death by the decedent are included in figuring any deduction for medical and dental expenses on the decedent’s final income tax return. This includes expenses for the decedent’s spouse and dependents as well as for the decedent.

The survivor or personal representative of a decedent can choose to treat certain expenses paid by the decedent’s estate for the decedent’s medical care as paid by the decedent at the time the medical services were provided. The expenses must be paid within the 1-year period beginning with the day after the date of death. If you are the survivor or personal representative making this choice, you must attach a statement to the decedent’s Form 1040 or 1040-SR (or the decedent’s amended return, Form 1040-X) saying that the expenses haven’t been and won’t be claimed on the estate tax return.

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What if the decedent’s return had been filed and the medical expenses weren’t included?

Form 1040-X can be filed for the year or years the expenses are treated as paid, unless the period for claiming a refund has passed. Generally, a claim for refund must be filed within 3 years of the date the original return was filed, or within 2 years from the time the tax was paid, whichever date is later.

Example.

Hudson properly filed a 2023 income tax return. Hudson died in 2024 with unpaid medical expenses of $1,500 from 2023 and $1,800 in 2024. If the expenses are paid within the 1-year period, Hudson’s survivor or personal representative can file an amended return for 2023 claiming a deduction based on the $1,500 medical expenses. The $1,800 of medical expenses from 2024 can be included on the decedent’s final return for 2024.

What if you pay medical expenses of a deceased spouse or dependent?

If you paid medical expenses for your deceased spouse or dependent, include them as medical expenses on your Schedule A (Form 1040) in the year paid, whether they are paid before or after the decedent’s death. The expenses can be included if the person was your spouse or dependent either at the time the medical services were provided or at the time you paid the expenses.

4. What Types of Medical Expenses Are Includible for Deduction?

Here’s a list of medical expenses you can include in figuring your medical expense deduction:

5. Understanding Capital Expenses and Medical Travel

Capital expenses can be included in medical expenses if their main purpose is medical care for you, your spouse, or your dependent. The cost of permanent improvements that increase the value of your property may be partly included as a medical expense. The cost of the improvement is reduced by the increase in the value of your property. The difference is a medical expense. If the value of your property isn’t increased by the improvement, the entire cost is included as a medical expense.

Certain improvements made to accommodate a home to your disabled condition, or that of your spouse or your dependents who live with you, don’t usually increase the value of the home and the cost can be included in full as medical expenses. These improvements include, but aren’t limited to, the following items.

• Constructing entrance or exit ramps for your home.
• Widening doorways at entrances or exits to your home.
• Widening or otherwise modifying hallways and interior doorways.
• Installing railings, support bars, or other modifications to bathrooms.
• Lowering or modifying kitchen cabinets and equipment.
• Moving or modifying electrical outlets and fixtures.
• Installing porch lifts and other forms of lifts (but elevators generally add value to the house).
• Modifying fire alarms, smoke detectors, and other warning systems.
• Modifying stairways.
• Adding handrails or grab bars anywhere (whether or not in bathrooms).
• Modifying hardware on doors.
• Modifying areas in front of entrance and exit doorways.
• Grading the ground to provide access to the residence.

Only reasonable costs to accommodate a home to your disabled condition are considered medical care. Additional costs for personal motives, such as for architectural or aesthetic reasons, aren’t medical expenses.

Capital expense worksheet.

Use Worksheet A to figure the amount of your capital expense to include in your medical expenses.

Worksheet A. Capital Expense Worksheet

Operation and upkeep.

Amounts you pay for operation and upkeep of a capital asset qualify as medical expenses as long as the main reason for them is medical care. This rule applies even if none or only part of the original cost of the capital asset qualified as a medical care expense.

Improvements to property rented by a person with a disability.

Amounts paid to buy and install special plumbing fixtures for a person with a disability, mainly for medical reasons, in a rented house are medical expenses.

Example.

You have arthritis and a heart condition. You can’t climb stairs or get into a bathtub. On the doctor’s advice, you install a bathroom with a shower stall on the first floor of your two-story rented house. The landlord didn’t pay any of the cost of buying and installing the special plumbing and didn’t lower the rent. You can include the entire amount you paid as medical expenses.

6. Can You Deduct the Cost of a Car for Medical Travel?

You can include in medical expenses the cost of special hand controls and other special equipment installed in a car for the use of a person with a disability.

Special design.

You can include in medical expenses the difference between the cost of a regular car and a car specially designed to hold a wheelchair.

Cost of operation.

The includible costs of using a car for medical reasons are explained under Transportation, later.

7. Other Potentially Deductible Medical Expenses

8. Guide Dogs or Other Service Animals and Deductible Medical Travel

You can include in medical expenses the costs of buying, training, and maintaining a guide dog or other service animal to assist a visually impaired or hearing disabled person, or a person with other physical disabilities. In general, this includes any costs, such as food, grooming, and veterinary care, incurred in maintaining the health and vitality of the service animal so that it may perform its duties.

9. What About Health Institutes and HMOs?

You can include in medical expenses fees you pay for treatment at a health institute only if the treatment is prescribed by a physician and the physician issues a statement that the treatment is necessary to alleviate a physical or mental disability or illness of the individual receiving the treatment.

You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay to entitle you, your spouse, or a dependent to receive medical care from an HMO. These amounts are treated as medical insurance premiums.

10. Are Hearing Aids Deductible?

You can include in medical expenses the cost of a hearing aid and batteries, repairs, and maintenance needed to operate it.

11. Hospital Services

You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for the cost of inpatient care at a hospital or similar institution if a principal reason for being there is to receive medical care. This includes amounts paid for meals and lodging. Also see Lodging, later.

12. Insurance Premiums and Deductible Medical Travel Expenses

You can include in medical expenses insurance premiums you pay for policies that cover medical care. You can’t include in medical expenses insurance premiums that were paid and for which you are claiming a credit or deduction. Medical care policies can provide payment for treatment that includes:

• Hospitalization, surgical services, X-rays;
• Prescription drugs and insulin;
• Dental care;
• Replacement of lost or damaged contact lenses; and
• Long-term care (subject to additional limitations).

12.1. Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Plan

Don’t include in your medical and dental expenses any insurance premiums paid by an employer-sponsored health insurance plan unless the premiums are included on your Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. Also, don’t include any other medical and dental expenses paid by the plan unless the amount paid is included on your Form W-2.

Example.

You are a federal employee participating in the premium conversion plan of the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) program. Your share of the FEHB premium is paid by making a pre-tax reduction in your salary. Because you are an employee whose insurance premiums are paid with money that is never included in your gross income, you can’t deduct the premiums paid with that money.

Long-term care services.

Contributions made by your employer to provide coverage for qualified long-term care services under a flexible spending or similar arrangement must be included in your income. This amount will be reported as wages on your Form W-2.

Retired public safety officers.

If you are a retired public safety officer, don’t include as medical expenses any health or long-term care insurance premiums that you elected to have paid with tax-free distributions from a retirement plan. This applies only to distributions that would otherwise be included in income.

Health reimbursement arrangement (HRA).

If you have medical expenses that are reimbursed by a health reimbursement arrangement, you can’t include those expenses in your medical expenses.

12.2. Medicare Parts A, B, and D

• Medicare Part A: If you aren’t covered under social security, you can include the premiums you paid for Medicare Part A as a medical expense.
• Medicare Part B: Premiums you pay for Medicare Part B are a medical expense.
• Medicare Part D: You can include as a medical expense premiums you pay for Medicare Part D.

12.3. Personal Protective Equipment

You can include in medical expenses the amounts you pay for personal protective equipment, such as masks, hand sanitizer and hand sanitizing wipes, for the primary purpose of preventing the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

12.4. Prepaid Insurance Premiums

Premiums you pay before you are age 65 for insurance for medical care for yourself, your spouse, or your dependents after you reach age 65 are medical care expenses in the year paid if they are:

1. Payable in equal yearly installments or more often; and
2. Payable for at least 10 years, or until you reach age 65 (but not for less than 5 years).

12.5. Unused Sick Leave Used To Pay Premiums

You must include in gross income cash payments you receive at the time of retirement for unused sick leave. You must also include in gross income the value of unused sick leave that, at your option, your employer applies to the cost of your continuing participation in your employer’s health plan after you retire. You can include this cost of continuing participation in the health plan as a medical expense.

12.6. Insurance Premiums You Can’t Include

You can’t include premiums you pay for:

• Life insurance policies;
• Policies providing payment for loss of earnings;
• Policies for loss of life, limb, sight, etc.;
• Policies that pay you a guaranteed amount each week for a stated number of weeks if you are hospitalized for sickness or injury;
• The part of your car insurance that provides medical insurance coverage for all persons injured in or by your car because the part of the premium providing insurance for you, your spouse, and your dependents isn’t stated separately from the part of the premium providing insurance for medical care for others; or
• Health or long-term care insurance if you elected to pay these premiums with tax-free distributions from a retirement plan and these distributions would otherwise have been included in income.

13. Special Home for the Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled

You can include in medical expenses the cost of keeping a person who is intellectually and developmentally disabled in a special home, not the home of a relative, on the recommendation of a psychiatrist to help the person adjust from life in a mental hospital to community living.

14. Lactation Expenses

See Breast Pumps and Supplies, earlier.

15. Lead-Based Paint Removal

You can include in medical expenses the cost of removing lead-based paints from surfaces in your home to prevent a child who has or had lead poisoning from eating the paint. These surfaces must be in poor repair (peeling or cracking) or within the child’s reach. The cost of repainting the scraped area isn’t a medical expense.

16. Legal Fees

You can include in medical expenses legal fees you paid that are necessary to authorize treatment for mental illness. However, you can’t include in medical expenses fees for the management of a guardianship estate, fees for conducting the affairs of the person being treated, or other fees that aren’t necessary for medical care.

17. Lifetime Care—Advance Payments and Deductible Medical Travel Expenses

You can include in medical expenses a part of a life-care fee or “founder’s fee” you pay either monthly or as a lump sum under an agreement with a retirement home. The part of the payment you include is the amount properly allocable to medical care.

Dependents with disabilities.

You can include in medical expenses advance payments to a private institution for lifetime care, treatment, and training of your physically or mentally impaired child upon your death or when you become unable to provide care. The payments must be a condition for the institution’s future acceptance of your child and must not be refundable.

18. Lodging Expenses

You can include in medical expenses the cost of meals and lodging at a hospital or similar institution if a principal reason for being there is to receive medical care.

You may be able to include in medical expenses the cost of lodging not provided in a hospital or similar institution. You can include the cost of such lodging while away from home if all of the following requirements are met.

1. The lodging is primarily for and essential to medical care.
2. The medical care is provided by a doctor in a licensed hospital or in a medical care facility related to, or the equivalent of, a licensed hospital.
3. The lodging isn’t lavish or extravagant under the circumstances.
4. There is no significant element of personal pleasure, recreation, or vacation in the travel away from home.

The amount you include in medical expenses for lodging can’t be more than $50 for each night for each person. You can include lodging for a person traveling with the person receiving the medical care. For example, if a parent is traveling with a sick child, up to $100 per night can be included as a medical expense for lodging. Meals aren’t included.

19. Long-Term Care Services

You can include in medical expenses amounts paid for qualified long-term care services and certain amounts of premiums paid for qualified long-term care insurance contracts.

19.1. Qualified Long-Term Care Services

Qualified long-term care services are necessary diagnostic, preventive, therapeutic, curing, treating, mitigating, rehabilitative services, and maintenance and personal care services that are:

1. Required by a chronically ill individual, and
2. Provided pursuant to a plan of care prescribed by a licensed health care practitioner.

Chronically ill individual.

An individual is chronically ill if, within the previous 12 months, a licensed health care practitioner has certified that the individual meets either of the following descriptions.

1. The individual is unable to perform at least two activities of daily living without substantial assistance from another individual for at least 90 days, due to a loss of functional capacity. Activities of daily living are eating, toileting, transferring, bathing, dressing, and continence.
2. The individual requires substantial supervision to be protected from threats to health and safety due to severe cognitive impairment.

Maintenance and personal care services.

Maintenance or personal care services is care which has as its primary purpose the providing of a chronically ill individual with needed assistance with the individual’s disabilities (including protection from threats to health and safety due to severe cognitive impairment).

19.2. Qualified Long-Term Care Insurance Contracts

A qualified long-term care insurance contract is an insurance contract that provides only coverage of qualified long-term care services. The contract must:

1. Be guaranteed renewable;
2. Not provide for a cash surrender value or other money that can be paid, assigned, pledged, or borrowed;
3. Provide that refunds, other than refunds on the death of the insured or complete surrender or cancellation of the contract, and dividends under the contract must be used only to reduce future premiums or increase future benefits; and
4. Generally not pay or reimburse expenses incurred for services or items that would be reimbursed under Medicare, except where Medicare is a secondary payer, or the contract makes per diem or other periodic payments without regard to expenses.

The amount of qualified long-term care premiums you can include is limited. You can include the following as medical expenses on Schedule A (Form 1040).

1. Qualified long-term care premiums up to the following amounts.

   1. Age 40 or under—$470.
   2. Age 41 to 50—$880.
   3. Age 51 to 60—$1,760.
   4. Age 61 to 70—$4,710.
   5. Age 71 or over—$5,880.

2. Unreimbursed expenses for qualified long-term care services.

20. What About Meals and Medical Travel?

You can include in medical expenses the cost of meals at a hospital or similar institution if a principal reason for being there is to get medical care.

You can’t include in medical expenses the cost of meals that aren’t part of inpatient care. Also see Weight-Loss Program and Nutritional Supplements, later.

21. Can You Deduct the Cost of Medical Conferences?

You can include in medical expenses amounts paid for admission and transportation to a medical conference if the medical conference concerns the chronic illness of yourself, your spouse, or your dependent. The costs of the medical conference must be primarily for and necessary to the medical care of you, your spouse, or your dependent. The majority of the time spent at the conference must be spent attending sessions on medical information.

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22. Medicines and Medical Travel Deductions

You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for prescribed medicines and drugs. A prescribed drug is one that requires a prescription by a doctor for its use by an individual. You can also include amounts you pay for insulin. Except for insulin, you can’t include in medical expenses amounts you pay for a drug that isn’t prescribed.

22.1. Imported Medicines and Drugs

If you imported medicines or drugs from other countries, see Medicines and Drugs From Other Countries under What Expenses Aren’t Includible, later.

23. Nursing Home Costs

You can include in medical expenses the cost of medical care in a nursing home, home for the aged, or similar institution, for yourself, your spouse, or your dependents. This includes the cost of meals and lodging in the home if a principal reason for being there is to get medical care.

Don’t include the cost of meals and lodging if the reason for being in the home is personal. You can, however, include in medical expenses the part of the cost that is for medical or nursing care.

24. Deducting Nursing Services

You can include in medical expenses wages and other amounts you pay for nursing services. The services need not be performed by a nurse as long as the services are of a kind generally performed by a nurse.

Employment taxes.

You can include as a medical expense social security tax, FUTA, Medicare tax, and state employment taxes you pay for an attendant who provides medical care.

25. Operations and Organ Donors

You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for legal operations that aren’t for cosmetic surgery. See Cosmetic Surgery under What Expenses Aren’t Includible, later.

You can include in medical expenses amounts paid for medical care you receive because you are a donor or a possible donor of a kidney or other organ. This includes the cost of medical care for the donor, in connection with the donation of an organ to you, your spouse, or dependent. This also includes transportation expenses.

26. Deducting Costs for Psychiatric Care

You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for psychiatric care. This includes the cost of supporting a mentally ill dependent at a specially equipped medical center where the dependent receives medical care.

27. Trips for Medical Travel

You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for transportation to another city if the trip is primarily for, and essential to, receiving medical services. You may be able to include up to $50 for each night for each person.

28. Special Education Costs

You can include in medical expenses fees you pay on a doctor’s recommendation for a child’s tutoring by a teacher who is specially trained and qualified to work with children who have learning disabilities caused by mental or physical impairments, including nervous system disorders.

29. What Expenses Aren’t Includible?

Following is a list of some items that you can’t include in figuring your medical expense deduction. The items are listed in alphabetical order.