The Turbo Tax software I purchased is not allowing me to input medical expenses. Why?

[mocha_ann]

The Turbo Tax software is Turbo Tax Home and Business, purchased at Target.

[IreneS]

Please keep in mind the following about deducting your medical expenses, including health insurance:

• You don't get the benefit if you are taking the standard deduction.
• If you itemize deductions, you will only be able to take total medical expenses that are greater than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.

To enter your medical expenses in TurboTax, please follow these steps:

1. Click on Personal > Deductions & Credits > I'll choose what I work on
   
2. In the Medical section, click on the Start/Revisit box next to Medical Expenses. 
3. If you haven't yet entered any medical expenses, TurboTax will ask you if your total medical expenses exceed a certain number.  [That's the 7.5% AGI mentioned above.]      
4. If you think your total medical expenses will exceed that number, click the blue Yes box and continue through the interview, entering the requested information on your medical expenses.

If you are still having difficulty entering medical expenses, please put in the comments section exactly what you are experiencing.

[SLSAMUEL77]

I am using Turbo Tax Premier. I just completed entering my 2019 donations and moved to entering my medical expenses. The program will not let me enter any number is the various medical expense field.

[SLSAMUEL77]

Update to my comment: I was not able to enter data in the Prescription box or the Professional fees box.

I entered the data in the other medical expenses  box

[StephanieP]

Has anyone solved this yet?

i recall having this issue last year and now it's happening again.

It is not a matter of whether i qualify, it's a glitch in the software that won't allow any amount to be added to:

   prescription

   anything spent on medical professionals

after those 2 it will allow me to input expenses for hospitals and other medical expenses.

[JeanneLO]

You may need to log out and restart your computer, then log back in, or try another browser. You may also need to clear your cache and cookies if you are using TurboTax Online.

To clear your cache use this TurboTax FAQ

To delete your cookies use this TurboTax FAQ

If you are using TurboTax Desktop please make sure the software is updated. You may also need to perform a manual update: Manually Update TurboTax for Windows Software (Basic, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business)

@StephanieP

[intwtf]

now of these work... wtf am I suppose to do if the **bleep** isn't working right

[SteamTrain]

@intwtf    (and anyone else still struggling with this)

____________________________________

IF you are using the Windows Desktop software......

...and IF you transferred in a tax file from last year's taxes.

...........and IF a field in the interview shows a $0 that doesn't seem to let you make an entry.

....THEN.....

.....................there is an empty Supporting Details worksheet attached to that field.

Double-click on the field and the SD worksheet will pop up for you to make detailed entries ...or delete the worksheet entirely after it pops up and make an entry in the normal place once the SD worksheet is deleted.

[thesimroths]

Thank you so much!  I was having the same problem when working now on my 2021 taxes - a couple of the medical expense categories had a pre-filled $0 in the box that I could not change - was getting very frustrated until I found your reply to the poster's prior question.  Your fix of double clicking to open supporting documentation sheet worked -- I just edited the supporting documentation sheet as I saw fit and then the correct number showed in the box for that medical expense category.  Seems like this is something that TurboTax should fix as it certainly is not intuitive as to what you need to do.  Thanks again!

[galjfd]

Thank you so much! I was having the same problem when working on my 2021 taxes - a couple of the medical expense categories had a pre-filled $0 in the box that I could not change - was getting very frustrated until I found your reply to the poster's prior question. Your fix of double clicking to open supporting documentation sheet worked -- I just edited the supporting documentation sheet as I saw fit and then the correct number showed in the box for that medical expense category. Seems like this is something that TurboTax should fix as it certainly is not intuitive as to what you need to do. Thanks again! This saved me NOT having countless nights of NOT getting any sleep due to stress and worry!! 

Please ensure that this fix is maybe put into the software help so that others can move on and not drink themselves to sleep.  LOL

[Crossrealtor]

Keeps taking me back to the Medical Expenses, says Needs Review. Since they won't affect my taxes anyway, i've tried not inputting anything, inputting 0s, adding a few expenses I did have - nothing works. Been trying for two days.

[AbrahamT]

As Irene previously reported earlier keep this information in mind. Before you do that though, I would delete all the input you originally had reported in this Medical section input and start this section over again. 

Please keep in mind the following about deducting your medical expenses, including health insurance:

• You don't get the benefit if you are taking the standard deduction.
• If you itemize deductions, you will only be able to take total medical expenses that are greater than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.

To enter your medical expenses in TurboTax, please follow these steps:

1. Click on Personal > Deductions & Credits > I'll choose what I work on
    
2. In the Medical section, click on the Start/Revisit box next to Medical Expenses. 
3. If you haven't yet entered any medical expenses, TurboTax will ask you if your total medical expenses exceed a certain number.  [That's the 7.5% AGI mentioned above.]      
4. If you think your total medical expenses will exceed that number, click the blue Yes box and continue through the interview, entering the requested information on your medical expenses.

If that still doesn't work, I would recommend you clear cache and cookies, restart your computer and try it over. It may be a browser issue or some other internal technical problem with your computer.

Good luck.

[greglovelace]

I am still having trouble trying to enter Medical Professional fees.  The box is there, but when I try to enter an amount, it is not allowing that entry.  What's up?

[Critter-3]

@greglovelace 

Are you using the downloaded program ?   And did you transfer in the prior year information ?

[greglovelace]

Yes, and I just figured out what was wrong...  I had split the expenses in the worksheet, and had to go there to change the amounts.  Thanks for reading!