Nursing home deductions

[wayneschatz845]

My wife's social security form shows that she received money, but the nursing home has asked for a check for that amount.  Is this expense deductible?  Where do I enter it?

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

If social security benefits are paid directly to a care facility, you still report them as income, since they were still received "by her" and then paid for her expenses.

Medical expenses are an itemized deduction, although you will only benefit if you already itemize your other deductions (like state taxes and charity donations) and only if the medical expenses are more than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.  You should list them in the program and let the program do the math to see what kind of deduction you actually get.

Expenses for an actual nursing home, where someone goes mainly for nursing and other medical care, are deductible medical expenses. Costs for memory care, assisted living and other arrangements are only partly deductible to the extent that they cover actual nursing services.  The facility should send you a statement detailing which expenses are nursing expenses.  In some cases, the cost for assisted living or memory care can be fully deductible, if the person has a chronic illness and certain other conditions are met. 

[wayneschatz845]

Thank you for the help.