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Medical deduction for utilities relating to air conditioning for my son

My son has a somewhat rare medical issue (dysautonomia resulting from a Chiari Malformation) where his body does not regulate his temperature.  We have to keep the house between 64 and 68 degrees and he needs to take a bath daily to thermoregulate.  We have a doctor's note (heck, we have records from Mayo, the Cleveland Clinic, Chicago, as well as our local doctors and neurologists.)

We live in the interior valley of California and despite replacing our AC system and adding solar, we still have extremely high utility bills.  After reading some of the posts about AC system medical deductions, I would think we could potentially take a portion of the utility bills?  How would we pro-rate the portion related to keeping the house cooler in the spring, summer, fall, and most of the winter, warmer in January/February, and the gas and water for daily bathing?

BTW, we have found he also needs to keep active daily, so he ice skates as that is the only exertion he can do without overheating.... skating runs us thousand of dollars a year as well between the daily drive and the ice time and coaching, etc.

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5 Replies

Medical deduction for utilities relating to air conditioning for my son

 

Medical deduction for utilities relating to air conditioning for my son

"How would we pro-rate the portion related to keeping the house cooler in the spring, summer, fall, and most of the winter, warmer in January/February, and the gas and water for daily bathing?"

 

That is exactly the question.    

 

The cost of installing and maintaining the solar panels, A/C system, etc. are not allowable medical expenses.  I believe the excess cost of running the system at 64F (instead of 74F, for example) is an allowable medical expense in your situation.  However, if audited, you need to show the IRS some reasonable basis for calculating this excess cost.  I'm not sure how you can do this.  For example, if your son is ever out of the house for a day, you could set the system up, get your daily usage, and compare it to a similar day when he is at home and the system is set down, to get the percentage difference.  And the cost to run the A/C on a 75 degree day would be all excess due to medical reasons, while the cost on a 90 degree day would only be partial excess.  Or, you might be able to compare your electric usage with neighbors who have similar sized houses in the same geographic area and electric supplier.  (Maybe take an average.  The utility company might have this info or some of your neighbors might volunteer to share their bills.)  Or, you might need to talk to an HVAC company, or a company that does home energy audits, or even the electric utility.  There are devices you can attach to your electrical panel that can measure the electric usage of different appliances in your home (to separate the cost of AC from the cost of lights, computers, refrigerator, etc.) but those devices by themselves won't tell you the excess.

 

The IRS wants you to have a reasonable method to allocate the cost, but it does not have to be perfect. However, it should be something you monitor and keep records routinely, and not something you guessed at the night before your audit. 

 

Unfortunately, I don't believe the costs of ice skating are deductible.  Exercise programs for general health are not deductible unless they are a specific treatment for a specific condition.  From your description, the ice skating is for general health, not a specific treatment, so the fact that it is the only exercise he can tolerate and is expensive, is not enough to make it deductible.  But that's just my opinion.

 

The IRS guidance on medical expenses is here.

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-502

Medical deduction for utilities relating to air conditioning for my son

Thank you for you thorough response.... Yes, I didn't try to deduct anything related to the HVAC system when we had it upgraded nor the solar.  Your response was lining up with my thoughts about how to prorate.... fortunately, there have been a few weeks where he has traveled for skating competitions, so I can use those days presumably to determine a "baseline" for usage without the additional cooling as I have stayed behind to work and take care of the dog.

Medical deduction for utilities relating to air conditioning for my son

@Fugawe 

As I said, it does not have to be a perfect system, but it should be reasonable, and it should be something you track at least monthly, so you have contemporaneous records, instead of reconstructing it when you get an audit notice.

 

Good luck. 

Medical deduction for utilities relating to air conditioning for my son

Thank you!  I pulled down all of the available daily usage and billing from the utility which goes back to Aug 31 2021 which should be a good source.  I also have data from previous bills if needed that i believe shows monthly usage but not daily.  Lots of variable, but I should have enough data to make a compelling argument based on statistically valid data (I received a great deal of statistical training for process improvement projects at my old job.)

 

Thank you again,

Craig

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