Ohio Medical Expenses Worksheet

[michiganfootball]

There appears to be a missing question while doing the Ohio Unreimbursed Medical & Health Care Expenses Worksheet (Ohio Schedule A, Line 35).  Turbo Tax asked about the insurance paid while not eligible for Medicare but does not have a question to enter the amount of insurance paid while you were eligible  for Medicare.  Therefore, the amount of total insurance paid is incorrect.  Should the software be updated to include the second question? 

[ReginaM]

Yes, you are correct that Line 35 of your Ohio State Un-reimbursed Medical Expenses should include your medical insurance premiums., however, this information is fed through the data that you entered in your Federal Portion of TurboTax.  To make sure that your medical insurance flows through to your State Return, complete the Medical Expense portion of TurboTax by following these steps:

1. While in your Tax Home,
2. Select Search in the top right side of your screen,
3. Enter Medical Expenses,
4. Select Jump to Medical Expenses,
5. Follow the on-screen prompts to add your insurance premiums.

[michiganfootball]

The provided response did not solve the problem with my Ohio return. I may not have been clear with my first question.  My case is when the taxpayer is part year Medicare and part year private insurance.  The questions in the state of Ohio return asked for what are the insurance premiums while you were not eligible for Medicare. What is missing is a question for the insurance premiums while you were eligible for Medicare.  Therefore the deduction on the Ohio return is missing some of my insurance premiums.  I am paying my Part B and D plus a supplement on my own because I'm not collecting Social Security yet.

[AmyC]

Enter the extra expenses where it says not eligible. The program and the tax return are certainly different. The goal is for the tax return to be correct. We can lie to the program if it gets the right information onto the tax return.

[TaraMidwest]

Michiganfootball, I agree with you.  Turbo Tax should have a question about unreimbursed medical premiums when you are on an Employer-Paid or Medicare insurance plan.  This almost caused me to lose out on a larger refund.  I happened to remember deducting it last year, looked it up, and manually put it in.  TT needs to rewrite the program.  I called customer service and they agreed with me but the change has never been made.  

[TaraMidwest]

Regina M, that may be true but b/c many people know they are going to use the standard deduction on their federal form, they will not take the time to fill in the medical section.  Therefore, the numbers are not going to filter through to the Ohio state form and many Ohioans are going to miss this deduction.  Even if that is true, there is an inconsistency to your answer b/c TT has questions on the Ohio form for longterm care and unremimbursed medical care expenses, which are also covered on the federal form.  This question should have been programmed into the Ohio form.

To check out what you said, I went back and changed the amount for premiums paid on my federal form after first deleting what I had entered manually on Ohio Schedule A Line 35 Step 4.  The new federal amount did NOT show up on my state form.  I still think it is programmed incorrectly and is in error.  It needs to be looked at by TT before anyone else misses that deduction.  Please let me know if my reasoning is incorrect.

[ReginaM]

@TaraMidwest you are correct, I should have mentioned in my response that the Medical expenses should be entered into the Federal portion of TurboTax, whether or not you are itemizing your deductions.  However, these expenses accurately flow through to the State of Ohio return.  

When you are in the State of Ohio questionnaire, it does ask questions to sort out the health insurance plan deductions if your healthcare and long term care insurance premiums were entered in TurboTax. 

[michiganfootball]

@ReginaM You are still missing the point. The question in the state of Ohio return asked for what are the insurance premiums while you were not eligible for Medicare (look at the screen shot you provided). What is missing is a question for the insurance premiums while you were eligible for Medicare.  Therefore the deduction on the Ohio return is missing some of my insurance premiums.  I am paying my Part B and D plus a supplement on my own because I'm not collecting Social Security yet. 

@AmyC provided this response (which I think is totally unacceptable) "Enter the extra expenses where it says not eligible.  We can lie to the program if it gets the right information onto the tax return". What about the tax filer that may not know about this error? 

[Hal_Al]

Ohio treats unsubsidized health insurance premiums differently.  They are not subject to the 7.5% of AGI threshold.

There is no separate entry for "subsidized" premiums (medicare by definition is subsidized).  You include your medicare & medicare supplement premiums in your lump sum medical expenses entry.  In most cases, entering medical expenses  in the federal section carries to the Ohio return. But, you do get a chance to override it. 

Unfortunately, the Ohio legislature's  good deed just makes it complicated for the majority of us who have  regular (subsidized) insurance. 

[morse2]

But the amount we have to cover for Medicare B, D, G, etc. is not subsidized so do we include that under medical expenses?  If it is carried over from the federal form (entered even though only qualified for standard deduction), do we reenter it on the state form?  TurboTax please get this right for the next cycle.  Too confusing.

[morse2]

Are Ohio Medical Expenses (including Medicare Insurance Premiums B, D, G which we paid out of pocket all year) reportable only if they exceed 7.5% AGI?

[Hal_Al]

Q. Are Ohio Medical Expenses (including Medicare Insurance Premiums B, D, G which we paid out of pocket all year) reportable only if they exceed 7.5% AGI?

A. Yes.  Under Ohio rules, medicare is considered "subsidized"

[pkelley64]

This caused me to lose $400 on 2020 return and have to submit a new one to get my money back. Turbo tax has yet to fix the issue and that is why I refuse to pay for the turbotax state the last 2 years. Fix the issue don't tell us we have to figure out how to lie to the program to get it to work properly. That doesn't work because they treat the subsidized health care expenses differently than unsubsidized. I'm sure there's alot of people not getting the credit they deserve because they answer the questions truthfully. Poor business when an issue is brought to your attention and its ignored for years!