Pregnancy & Tax

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Hi

Does anyone know if tax is available on medical expenses associated with pregnancy. I am self employed, my wife is PAYE & we have no medical insurance (I know !!!!). Just wondering about cost of private, semi private care & want to know should tax be a consideration.
Thanks in advance.
 
See Revenue leaflet [broken link removed]:
 
Hi Thanks for the link.

Could you help with an example,

Example A : Baby due in Jan06, if we choose a Dublin hospital & went private & had a bill of €5k (only guessing, have no idea yet). How much could we claim back etc etc

Example B : Baby due in Jan06, if we choose a Dublin hospital & went semi private & had a bill of €3k (only guessing, have no idea yet). How much could we claim back etc etc

remember in both cases we have no insurance, I am self employed, wife is PAYE.

Thanks in advance.
 
I don't know if/how your self employed status might affect this. You should check with your accountant. In the general case of a PAYE employee with allowable medical expenses they can claim back tax at their marginal rate (20% or 42%) on any otherwise unreimbursed expenses over €125 (individual claim) or €250 (joint/family claim). The booklet that I linked to earlier gives a good overview of how this works.
 
is a birth considered claim for 1 person(with associated 125 excess) or as a claim for 2 or more people(with associated 250) limit by renevue??

Also, heres one. lets say you have 2k medical bills. Single person claim, pays tax at 42%. The VHI will cover 500 but not direct payment to consultant, you have to claim it back from VHI.

So obviously it would be more benefical to claim the 42% tax back on the (2000 - 125) = 787.5.

You are then left with a bill of 1212.5 of which you can claim 500 back from VHI and leave you with final cost of 712.5

On the other hand if you claim the 500 back from the VHI first you have 2000 - 500 = 1500.

then, claim back the 42% on the (1500 - 125) = 577.5 = final bill of 922.5

So its obviously more benefical to claim the 42% on the max amount....but are you allowed do this.....is their an obligation on you in terms of which way round you have to claim first between VHI and revenue???
 
Thanks to both for reply.

Legend99 unfortunately it isnt as easy as you have identified. The tax relief is not available on any expenditure which has been reimbursed by for example BUPA or VHI. In my case we dont have any insurance in place but at least things wont be as expensive as I originally thought if I am correct if my rough calcs below

Cost of private care in Dublin hospital = €6000
I must cover €125 (will use €125 in this calc but check if this should be €250)
Balance = €5875
42% tax back = €2467
Balance paid by me = €3407
 
legend99 said:
is a birth considered claim for 1 person(with associated 125 excess) or as a claim for 2 or more people(with associated 250) limit by renevue??
Click to expand...

If no other expenses for another peson (e.g. the husband or another family member) are included then it could be a claim for an individual and the €125 "excess" would apply.


I don't think that you can juggle it like this and would assume that you have to make any private health insurance claim first and only then claim tax relief on the remaining unreimbursed expenses. Best to check with Revenue to be sure though.
 
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