bg4au22
New Member

How do I calculate the "high deductible insurance plan" deduction for the State of Georgia deduction?

I paid $1500 in out of pocket deductible expenses and an additional $882.37 in out-of-pocket expenses. How do I calculate the amount eligible? Do I even qualify?
ChristinaS
Expert Alumni

State tax filing

The deduction, if you qualify, is for insurance premiums/ the cost of the insurance itself- it is not for your medical expenses/ copays/ deductible etc.

To qualify for the High Deductible Health Insurance deduction in Georgia you must meet the following requirements:

  1. Your insurance must be defined as a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP). Many people will automatically not be eligible because their insurance does not have this designation. If unsure, you can ask your plan if it is considered an HDHP. The plan itself must meet specific criteria, and having a higher deductible than another plan might not be enough.
  2. If your plan qualifies, you need to see if you got a federal tax benefit for your insurance costs. This will also eliminate most people from qualifying, since the majority of individuals will have pretax insurance through their jobs. That means the cost of your insurance has already not been taxed.
  3. If you pass these 2 hurdles, you still have to keep one thing in mind: The deduction is for the insurance premiums, not for your deductible/ expenses.

If you pay for High Deductible Health Insurance premiums that are not pretax through your job (which is probably rather uncommon), you may be eligible for a deduction through the State of Georgia. You have to adjust the deduction if you also got a benefit on federal Schedule A for medical.

See page 12 of GA instructions (item number 20).

http://dor.georgia.gov/sites/dor.georgia.gov/files/related_files/document/2016_IT-511_Individual_Inc... 

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ChristinaS
Expert Alumni

State tax filing

I made some corrections to my original response. Please review the response in the Answer Exchange rather than the original version which was emailed to you. Thank you!
rebfox
New Member

State tax filing

how do I know if I received a federal tax benefit for health insurance costs