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Tax Year Prior to 2020: Can I deduct rental car expenses for driving out of town for medical care?

Driving out of state in one instance, and driving 100 miles away in another, both for care that took 10 and 6 days, repectively, at the clinics/hospitals where my child was treated. Rented a car because she was not able to manage air travel, and because family needed our cars at home for usual in town transportation needs.

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Tax Year Prior to 2020: Can I deduct rental car expenses for driving out of town for medical care?

Yes.  Your transportation is deductible as long as it was primarily for medical care. If it required you rent a car to obtain the medical care, it can be deducted. You can deduct the amounts required for the medical care for yourself, spouse, or any dependent on your tax return.

"You can include in medical expenses amounts paid for transportation primarily for, and essential to, medical care.

You can include:   
  • Bus, taxi, train, or plane fares or ambulance service,

  • Transportation expenses of a parent who must go with a child who needs medical care,

  • Transportation expenses of a nurse or other person who can give injections, medications, or other treatment required by a patient who is traveling to get medical care and is unable to travel alone, and

  • Transportation expenses for regular visits to see a mentally ill dependent, if these visits are recommended as a part of treatment.

Car expenses.   You can include out-of-pocket expenses, such as the cost of gas and oil, when you use a car for medical reasons. You can't include depreciation, insurance, general repair, or maintenance expenses.

  If you don't want to use your actual expenses for 2015, you can use the standard medical mileage rate of 23 cents a mile.

   You can also include parking fees and tolls. You can add these fees and tolls to your medical expenses whether you use actual expenses or the standard mileage rate.


In order to deduct medical expenses, you must itemize deductions on Schedule A, and your unreimbursed medical expenses must exceed 10 percent of your adjusted gross income (AGI).   Then, you can only deduct the amount by which your unreimbursed medical expenses exceed this 10 percent threshold (7.5% of AGI for age 65 and older until 2017).

Please see the following link for a comprehensive list of deductible medical expenses.    IRS Medical Expenses

Tax Year Prior to 2020: Can I deduct rental car expenses for driving out of town for medical care?

Ok.  Turbo Tax representative states that the cost of car rental used for medical appointments is deductible.

Is the gas used in the rental car also deductible?  If so, what method is used - the actual cost of the gasoline verified by receipts or the medical mileage rate?

Cynthiad66
Employee Tax Expert

Tax Year Prior to 2020: Can I deduct rental car expenses for driving out of town for medical care?

Since it is a rental car you need to deduct the actual expenses and not mileage.  Mileage is reserved for your personal vehicle.   You can't write off the full cost of renting a vehicle and the mileage as well. You must choose one or the other.

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