If I live in NJ and paid $6,589 (pre-tax) last year for medical benefits through payroll deductions. Does this cost qualify as nonreimbursed medical expenses?

[Todd526]

On the same page (in Turbo Tax) it also asks for New Jersey Medical insurance premiums included in your NJ wages but not in your federal wages on your W-2, and not deducted on your Federal Schedule A.  How can I tell if this field is relevant to my situation?

[Todd526]

It appears that the difference between box 1 and 16 is exactly $8840 which is Medical ($6589), Dental ($251), and Health Care FSA ($2000). Can all of these expenses be included in the second box on the turbo tax screen "New Jersey medical insurance premiums included in your New Jersey wages but not in your federal wages on your W-2, and not deducted on Federal Schedule A."? Thank you.

[rjs]

You can include the medical and dental insurance premiums. You cannot include the health care FSA. However, you can include medical expenses that were paid from your health care FSA. (You cannot include those expenses in the medical expenses on your federal tax return.)

[Todd526]

Just so I completely understand. If I used the whole $2000 of fsa funds (which I did) to pay for medical expenses - i.e, co-pays, prescriptions, etc., then I can add it into the total for the second box?

[rjs]

Yes, that's right.

[rjs]

. . . provided that you paid the medical expenses in 2015. Some FSAs allow you to carry over some of the money to the following year. If you used some of the FSA funds in 2016, that amount would go on your 2016 tax return.

[Todd526]

Got it. Thank you very much.

[jdevola222]

Doesn't TurboTax already include the premiums as deductible, based on having entered the W2 info?  (how do I know they haven't been deducted twice?)

[rjs]

@jdevola222 - The medical insurance premiums are not shown on the W-2. They are not included in box 1 on the W-2, but they are not listed anywhere else on the W-2. TurboTax has no way of knowing about amounts that are not included in box 1. There are other things besides medical insurance premiums that can cause a difference between box 1 and box 16, so TurboTax cannot assume that the difference is medical insurance premiums.

TurboTax does not automatically add anything to medical expenses on the NJ tax return. The amount that it initially shows for medical expenses on the NJ return is just the total medical expenses from federal Schedule A.

[jdevola222]

I hate doing taxes.  Thanks for the info, rjs.

[hariabishek]

What if we've payed medical bills which were more than the FSA contribution? Can we add them to Nonreimbursed medical expenses Box 1 in Turbo Tax?

[SweetieJean]

@hariabishek
Yes you can.

[hariabishek]

@SweetieJean Thank you. So FSA + Medical and Dental goes into Box 2 (insurance premiums) and other medical expenses over FSA would go into Box 1.. is that right?

[kcaegis45]

medical and dental premiums goes into box 2 and for ALL other unreimbursed and reimbursed FSA medical expenses goes into box 1. Do not count FSA as a medical expense. FSA is just pretax money you set aside to reimburse you for the actual medical expenses you have. If you set aside $2000 but you never had any medical expenses during the year, you can not claim the FSA $2000 in any boxes since you did not have any med expense. If you had $2400 in med expenses then you claim $2400 in box 1 and separately, you submit your med bills to your FSA insurance company and they will reimburse you the $2000 you contributed to your FSA.

[rjs · Accepted solution]

The $6,589 probably should go in the second box on the Medical Expenses screen in the New Jersey interview. That's the box that says "New Jersey medical insurance premiums included in your New Jersey wages but not in your federal wages on your W-2, and not deducted on Federal Schedule A." That is normally the case in New Jersey. Medical insurance premiums are pretax for federal but after tax for the state, so they can be added to the medical expense deduction on the New Jersey tax return.

If your NJ wages in box 16 of your W-2 are exactly $6,589 more than the federal wages in box 1, then the difference is surely due to the medical insurance premiums and you can enter the amount of the premiums in that second box on the TurboTax screen. If the difference between box 1 and box 16 is not exactly equal to the medical insurance premiums, ask your employer if the premiums were included in box 16 but not in box 1. If so, you can enter them in the second box on the TurboTax screen.