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I earned foreign tax and paid for health insurance abroad. Can I benefit from a deduction?

 
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2 Replies
ThomasM125
Expert Alumni

I earned foreign tax and paid for health insurance abroad. Can I benefit from a deduction?

I believe you mean you paid foreign taxes on foreign income you earned and also paid for health insurance in a foreign country. If so, you may qualify for a foreign tax credit for the foreign taxes you paid and you may be able to deduct the health insurance.

 

To see if you qualify for a foreign tax credit or deduction, you would visit the  Estimates and Other Taxes paid section in  the Deductions and Credits area of TurboTax. There you will choose the Foreign Taxes option and work through that section to enter your foreign tax and your foreign income on which that tax was paid. If you have not reported your foreign income elsewhere in the program , you will do that in the Less Common Income section of TurboTax, and then Foreign Earned Income and Exclusion

 

Health insurance for a non-self employed individual can only be deducted as an itemized deduction. It is a medical expense deduction and your combined medical expenses are only deductible to the extent they exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. Also, you need to benefit from itemizing your deductions in order for the deduction to be of benefit to you. You would enter that in the Deductions and Credits section of TurboTax, and then Medical, under which you will choose Medical Expenses.

 

If you are self-employed, you may qualify for a self-employed heath insurance deduction for your health insurance. That would only apply if you are unable to acquire health insurance through your or your spouse's  employer. You will see an option for entering that when you enter your business expenses in TurboTax. 

 

 

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pk
Level 15
Level 15

I earned foreign tax and paid for health insurance abroad. Can I benefit from a deduction?

@gustavo-ranked-m , having read your post and the answer thereto of my colleague @ThomasM125  ( which I generally agree with ), I still have a few questions  for clarifying your situation:

 

(a) are you a US person ( citizen/GreenCard/Resident for Tax purposes )?  If you are not a citizen then which country are you a citizen of?

(b) are you married  to a US person or to a Non-Resident Alien or are you single ?

(c) how did you earn the foreign income and in which country ?  If employed in a foreign country, were you employed  by a US entity / US govt or by local entity or were you self-employed.

(d) when did you start working abroad and are you still there  or you are back in the USA?

 

Please answer my question so the answer is specific to your situation

 

pk

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