Should HSA HSF payments be deducted from MED1 expenses claim?

I am in the process of filling out a med 1 form for 2006.

Under the heading deductions it says to deduct any sums received under "any policy of insurance e.g VHI, BUPA, VIVAS Health etc"

I am not a member of any of these, however i am a member of The Hospital Saturday Fund. Does this group come under the term "insurance policies"? I know you get tax relief on your subscriptions to vivas etc however you do not get tax relief on your subs to the HSF.

Re: MED 1 Question



Moved from Other Financial Issues.

JJ47 said:

Under the heading deductions it says to deduct any sums received under "any policy of insurance e.g VHI, BUPA, VIVAS Health etc"

I am not a member of any of these, however i am a member of The Hospital Saturday Fund. Does this group come under the term "insurance policies"

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Yes - any otherwise reimbursed qualifying expenses must be deducted from the tax relief claim amount.

I know you get tax relief on your subscriptions to vivas etc however you do not get tax relief on your subs to the HSF.

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Are you sure that you are not entitled to claim this on a standalone basis via tax credits? Either way whether or not you get tax relief is irrelevant to the deduction of HSF refunded expenses from the tax claim amount as far as I know.

Re: MED 1 Question

As far as I know, the HSF provide a daily cash benefit rather than a re-imbursement of expenses. If this is the case, it may not have to be offset against your medical expenses when you are submitting your claim.

If you call your local tax ofice, they may be able to confirm or otherwise.

Homer

Re: MED 1 Question

OK - I didn't know that and maybe it's relevant.

Re: MED 1 Question

Did HSF pay any proportion of any medical bill which you are now claiming tax relief on ?

eg GP bill of 50, HSF pay 20, you get tax relief of on the remaining 30.
The same with any hospital bills.

If not, then there is no relevance, and you can claim for the entire payment.

Re: MED 1 Question

I think the key issue here is whether the amount you get from HSF is related in any way to the amount of the expense you incurred.

If it's a fixed payment (e.g. €20 for every day you spend in hospital), then it can probably be ignored for Med 1 purposes. On the other hand, if it's a proportion of the expense incurred (e.g. 50% or the first €20 of each doctor's visit) then it probably should be offset aginst the Med 1 claim.

This is only my opinion/understanding of the position. As I said earlier, you should talk to the tax office and ask them for clarification.

Regards
Homer

Re: Should HSA payments be deducted from MED1 expenses claim?

I put the OPs question to www.citizensinformation.ie and got this reply (after 3 weeks);

"Unfortunately we are not aware of who the HSA or HSF are in relation to insurance policies. Is it a private insurance policy that you have taken out? If you could email me back with further information on these policies, i will endeavor to ascertain whether you can claim these expenses as medical expenses."

So, they never heard of HSA/HSF !!

Sorry to dig up this old thread, but....

Has anyone got this clarified?

I'm putting my medical expenses through, and they add up to a tidy sum, the difference between them being included or not is about €1,000.

I'm in the process of filling out my tax return and want to get it right.