Where are these medical expenses coming from in TT?

[crash345u]

The only medical related item I entered in TT was for Form 1095A premiums for the ACA.

1. The screen titled "Now its time for the fun part, your tax breaks >>>  "Deductions and Credits" >> Medical Expenses shows a number exactly $3 higher than my 2023 annual total ACA premium.

Why is there a $3 difference?

2. The itemized "Two Year Comparison" sheet under Itemized Deductions >>"Medical and Dental" shows  $883. No other worksheets show this value.

Where is the $883 coming from? 

I never entered anything in the medical expenses category and confirmed they are all BLANK. The section asking "How much did you spend on insurance premiums?" is BLANK. I don't understand why this was not filled in with my 1095A premium total?

[Vanessa A · Accepted solution]

Look at line 27 of your Form 8962, you may find that you have an overpayment of the credit for $3 and are paying that back.  If so, this would be included in your medical.  You can also see this on your schedule 2 line 2.  

This is probably not going to affect your return since in order to claim medical expenses you need to itemize and only the expenses over 7.5% of your AGI are deductible. But I would wonder where it came from as well.  Itemized expenses include mortgage interest, state and local taxes up to $10,000, medical expenses in excess of 7.5% of your AGI and casualty and losses in excess of 10% of you AGI with the first $100 not counting towards the loss.  Your health insurance and all medical expenses are only deductible for the amount that is over 7.5% of your AGI.  This means if your AGI is $50,000, then the amount that is over $3,750 is deductible.  Also, if you are using the desktop version you can go to forms mode and click on the $883 then click on the magnifying glass which will take you to the page where it is calculated. 

[xmasbaby0]

Not sure where the $3 difference is coming from, but it is not going to matter anyway.  The medical expense deduction is extremely hard to get---and if yours was only a total of $883 it will not have any effect.   

MEDICAL EXPENSES

The medical expense deduction has to meet a rather large threshold before it can affect your return. The amount of medical (including dental, vision, etc.)  expenses that will count toward itemization is the amount that is OVER 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. You should only enter the amount that you paid in 2023—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.

To enter your medical expenses go to Federal>Deductions and Credits>Medical>Medical Expenses

2023 STANDARD DEDUCTION AMOUNTS

SINGLE $13,850  (65 or older/legally blind + $1850)

MARRIED FILING SEPARATELY $13,850  (65 or older/legally blind + $1500)

MARRIED FILING JOINTLY $27,700  (65+/legally blind) )  + $1500 per spouse

HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD  $20,800 (65 or older/blind)  + $1850)

[crash345u]

In my case (Filing Jointly $27,700 standard Deduction), I already met the $10K property tax + State Income limit, and had $16K in ACA premiums (which I believe counts towards medical costs)  and then an additional $6K in out of pocket medical costs.  So wouldn't this be sufficient to trigger the benefit of itemizing (with roughly $80K AGI) rather than taking the standard deduction? I also received ACA Premium Tax Credit back so I don't know if I should reduce my entry for premiums by the credit?

TT already knows I payed  $16K premium payments based on my 1095-A so I don't understand why that value is not already filled in during the interview for medical expenses. I am confused if I should be entering this again during the interview, in one place TT says I have $16K of medical expenses ($3 more than actual premiums)  and in another worksheet it says I have $883 in medical expenses.

I wish the online TT version allowed me to see exactly where the $883 medical expenses is coming from, I don't like not understanding how the worksheets are filled out.

[MarilynG1]

It sounds like you would benefit from transferring your current return into TurboTax Desktop so that you can view/edit the Forms and Worksheets.  Since we can't see your return in this forum, it's hard to see where your numbers are coming from. 

Once you have installed TurboTax on your computer, it's easy to transfer the return you've been working on into the desktop version and continue from there.  

Here's How to Transfer from TurboTax Online to TurboTax Desktop.  Once you have your tax file on your computer, you can purchase a CD or order a download of TurboTax directly from intuit.

@crash345u 

[crash345u]

That sounds like a great idea except I already paid over $100 for TT Online federal + state 😐

I think I understand where the $883 medical expenses is coming from (thanks to all of the previous post responses). Its the amount over 7.5%  of my AGI when taking into account the ACA premiums minus the PTC (but with a $3 error).

So now the only thing I don't understand is why my Medical expenses in the screen titled "Now its time for the fun part, your tax breaks >>>  "Deductions and Credits" >> Medical Expenses shows a number exactly $3 higher than my 2023 annual total ACA premium. I did Look at line 27 of your Form 8962.

Bottom line is I am no-where near the medical expense threshold for any of this to matter but I'd really like to understand the $3 discrepancy and it would be soooo nice if TT online gave the ability like desktop to see where the calculations came from.

[CatinaT1]

You can switch from Online to Desktop without payment. Here's how: How do I switch from TurboTax Online to TurboTax Desktop?

[sunlillyfairy]

I found the forms really confusing to find the correct number for ACA premiums. The 1095 doesn't show what I paid, it shows the monthly premium costs of the plan and the amount of ACA credit each month. (Example on 1095-A = column A. monthly enrollment premiums $2000, C. Monthly advance $1500, person would be paying $500 as their part of the plan.) Mine is not exact though, a few dollars difference each month. I assume that's from rounding. Anyway, I paid $11,412 directly, I was due another $212 in ACA credit for the year, so total I paid was out was $11,200. The amount put into my state taxes was $11,164, and I don't know why it's different. 

Problems = (1) TT did not direct me review the state tax itemized deductions and I didn't know where that number came from. I incorrectly assumed it was using the standard deduction as this is my first year in this state and in my prior state if you didn't itemize federal it wouldn't do you any good to itemize state. 2) I spent more than just premiums, I had a lot of co-pays in 2023, and now I need to file an amended return it if I want to get a larger refund. 

This is NOT something TT should just transfer without checking. Especially when you've used the standard on federal (because the amt of medical you pay makes no difference in that scenario) but it's using what it transfers over into State and didn't bother to asked me if it looked correct or I had additional expenses. 

[AndyPruett1978]

My medical expenses has been showing over $8 million and I finally figured out what was going on. I have a health market plan using a 1095-A... And when the amounts were put into box "A" column ... January thru December... It had pasted an incorrect amount.... I went back to 1095-A and typed in the correct amount and made sure every column... A, B, and C were  showing the correct amount. After I did this, my medical expenses went down to $3,000... Which was the amount that I had actually put in for medical expenses. Be careful because the bad thing is that when my taxes were reviewed I was told to send it but I knew it was incorrect so I fixed it before I sent it but it will go ahead and let you send it like that ...so don't!