Claiming Medical Expenses via Revenue if Unemployed

Just a quick question - Am I able to claim medical expenses via Revenue if I have not worked since 2023?

Also, is it mandatory to upload receipts when claiming now? It never used to be. On the revenue website it says "You are required to keep all original receipts for six years when making a claim for health expenses. You do not need to submit these receipts (this includes Med 2 forms) when you make a claim. However, we may request to view them if your claim is selected for checking"

And when I am trying to claim it says "You have not uploaded any receipts. Please upload receipt details and images for amounts spent by you. You can do this by using the Receipts Tracker in myAccount or the ‘Add a new receipt’ button below"

I'm just looking to clarify both questions above. Thanks in advance to anyone who knows.

Thanks, Dufresne.

Dufresne2022 said:

Just a quick question - Am I able to claim medical expenses via Revenue if I have not worked since 2023?

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Are you actually paying any income tax? If not then there will be no tax relief to be claimed.

Dufresne2022 said:

Also, is it mandatory to upload receipts when claiming now? It never used to be. On the revenue website it says "You are required to keep all original receipts for six years when making a claim for health expenses. You do not need to submit these receipts (this includes Med 2 forms) when you make a claim. However, we may request to view them if your claim is selected for checking"

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I don't believe that it's mandatory to upload receipts in order to claim medical expenses tax relief.

Have you paid tax? You can't claim tax back unless you've paid tax.
You don't have to upload receipts - but then you must keep them for 6 years.

If you don't pay income tax, anybody else ( who is a tax payer) could pay your medical expenses and claim tax relief on them.

Thanks all for these concise replies. Very much appreciated.

You do not need to upload receipts if you are claiming tax relief for medical expenses from previous tax years.

You do need to upload receipts if you are claiming real time tax credits for medical expenses in 2025.

S class said:

If you don't pay income tax, anybody else ( who is a tax payer) could pay your medical expenses and claim tax relief on them.

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Could a broker not put a seller and buyer together ( for a fee obviously )? or has this been tried and shot down by Revenue?

The facilitation of tax fraud for a fee is a criminal offence.

Let's be very clear - tax relief for medical expenses is due only to the person that bears the expense.

Getting someone else to falsely claim a tax refund for medical expenses that they didn't actually bear the expense of, is a textbook example of tax evasion. Lower end of the scale, value-wise, but still fraud.

Folks, I have deleted posts advocating tax evasion - even if the posters themselves did not consider it tax evasion.

The position has been stated very clearly by mandlebrot but it's no harm to restate it.

If I pay your medical expenses, I can get tax relief on them.

If I pay your medical expenses and using some "ruse" or nod and a wing, I get the cost back from you, it is tax evasion as I did not bear the cost of your medical treatment.