Tax deduction question

[Buccaneer]

I am itemizing my medical expenses for my 2004 taxes and I am unclear as whether I can deduct the premiums that are done through payroll. According to the help, I can deduct premiums if they are paid from your taxable salary. I am part of an EPO and get a certain amount taken (pre-tax) out along with Vision and Dental. Can I enter this amount on my taxes (it's about $3,800).

[Radii]

I am 99.9% sure that when you say it is taken out pre-tax that means that it's ineligible for a deduction... it already lowers your AGI and thus isn't deducatlbe. (this is the same as 401K contributions... you just don't pay taxes on contributions now... but you can't deduct them like you could an IRA contribution).





edit: clarity

[lynchjm24]

I am itemizing my medical expenses for my 2004 taxes and I am unclear as whether I can deduct the premiums that are done through payroll. According to the help, I can deduct premiums if they are paid from your taxable salary. I am part of an EPO and get a certain amount taken (pre-tax) out along with Vision and Dental. Can I enter this amount on my taxes (it's about $3,800).

Most payroll deducted medical premiums are pre-tax - so that $3,800 isn't part of your taxable income in the first place.

[Buccaneer]

Thank you. In looking at my Box 1 wages, it appears that the difference between that number and what my salary was comes to what I paid out in medical premiums. I didn't quite remember what I made last year so I didn't know if the Box 1 number included that or not.

[Glengoyne]

I'm also fairly sure that you can't deduct the premiums unless your total health care costs exceed a percentage of your income. And that percentage is pretty healthy, something like 8% or 10%. So you can only deduct health care costs if they take up an inordinate amount of your income. Even then, you can only deduct the portion that exceeds the percentage.

This might also be different if you are self employed. A few years back I couldn't deduct my Insurance premiums, but my wife could deduct hers because she was working as an independant contractor.