Your site says regarding 1099-LTC "This is not taxable if used for medical expenses", but when I enter the distribution amount, the taxes go up by approx. $6000

[BMcCalpin · Accepted solution]

When you first enter the amount of gross benefits from the 1099-LTC in the Long-term Care interview, the tax due will increase (or the refund decrease), because, by default, the program assumes that the distribution you received is taxable, until you tell the program otherwise.

Two screens later in my version of TurboTax (yours may vary a little), I saw a screen entitled "Additional LTC information".

This screen asks for "Qualified LTC Benefits". Here the program is asking you what part of the distribution was spent on qualified medical expenses.

If the entire distribution was spent on qualified medical expenses, then enter the same number here, and you will see that now that the program knows that the entire distribution was for qualified medical expenses, the tax due or refund amount will go back to where it was.

[lglhmi]

When the gross benefits exceed the medical care,  how do I treat the excess?

[Critter-3]

It depends, were you reimbursed on a per diem basis? And did you pay for the policy? If the answer is yes to both of these questions then none of the long-term care policy distributions are taxable to you and you're not even required to enter them anywhere on an income tax return. Also any expenses paid by the LTC policy are not deductible on the schedule a .

[lglhmi]

Last year I had to put the gross benefits as income. WHAT HAS CHANDED?

[Critter-3]

Nothing changed ... you just didn't know that you are not required to enter the info if it was not taxable ... this 1099-LTC   form and the 1099-Q are both written in the rules that they are only entered on the return   IF  you have taxable benefits.   The TT program has a place to enter it because if it didn't users would be lost  however the amount is not anywhere on the tax return if none of it is taxable.