[Kiss Me Deadly]

Can you claim glasses or contacts as medical expenses for your medical deduction?

[ImASadGiraffe]

I don't think so...there are a lot of rules applying to medical deductions.

If you have a pre-tax Flexible Health Savings Account, that can be used for glasses, contacts, solution, OTC meds, etc.

[Demosthenes]

You can! I used to do it when I had crappy insurance.

Contact Lenses
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for contact lenses needed for medical reasons. You can also include the cost of equipment and materials required for using contact lenses, such as saline solution and enzyme cleaner. See Eyeglasses and Eye Surgery, later.

Eyeglasses

You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for eyeglasses and contact lenses needed for medical reasons. You can also include fees paid for eye examinations.

That's from this link:

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p502/ar02.html

But remember, you can only deduct expenses if they total over 7.5 % of your income that year. (Worked out great when I was a lowly college student, but after I got better paying jobs I couldn't qualify)

[cola262]

^ Agreed, you can only deduct amounts spent over 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.

from IRS:
Example.
Your adjusted gross income is $40,000, 7.5% of which is $3,000. You paid medical expenses of $2,500. You cannot deduct any of your medical expenses because they are not more than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.

[Kiss Me Deadly]

^^thanks!