Are Medical Expenses Still Tax-Deductible?

The 2018 tax overhaul brought about a number of changes -- some favorable for taxpayers, and others, not so much. One tax break you may be wondering about in its aftermath is the medical expense deduction. It used to be that if you spent a large chunk of your income on healthcare costs, you'd be eligible to deduct medical expenses on your taxes. And the good news is that the medical expense deduction is still alive and well. But whether you'll actually get to capitalize on it is a different story.

For the current tax year, you can deduct eligible medical expenses that exceed 10% of your adjusted gross income, or AGI. But to be clear, you can only write off healthcare costs above that 10% threshold.

Imagine your AGI is $60,000, and you spend $6,000 on medical expenses. In that case, you actually don't get a deduction, because to qualify, your costs must surpass $6,000. And if you rack up $6,500 in medical expenses with an AGI of $60,000, you only get to deduct $500 of them, not the entire $6,500. As such, this particular deduction is somewhat difficult to claim, especially if you're a higher earner with medical bills that are mostly run-of-the-mill.

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Source Fool.com