Do I have to separate all of my medical expenses or can I put the lump sum we paid?

[makaguenter]

We paid a lot in medical expenses last year, I have the grand total we paid out of pocket.  Can I put the grand total or do I have to separate it into the categories asked?

[xmasbaby0 · Accepted solution]

When you enter medical expenses in TurboTax, it asks you a whole lot of questions to help you include everything that can be entered.  Really what matters in the end is the total of all of it; that is what will go on your tax form, so don't get too frazzled trying to make sure everything is in the "right" category as long as you enter it all, and do not enter anything twice. 

The medical expense deduction has to meet a rather large threshold before it can affect your return. The amount of medical expenses that will count toward itemization for someone under 65 is the amount that is OVER 10% of your adjusted gross income; for someone 65 or older it would be the amount over 7.5% of your AGI.  

You should only enter the amount that you paid in 2015—do not include any amounts that were covered by insurance or that are still outstanding.  Of course, your medical expenses plus your other itemized deductions still have to exceed your standard deduction before you will see a difference in your tax due or refund.

[SweetieJean]

Keep some kind of details in case of an audit.  I do a spreadsheet throughout the year, and then just enter the total in TT.

[mjhefferton]

Also, enter the date closest to the end of the year....that was a tip from Turbo Tax.