After theatening suicide & ending up in the hospital my daughter was sent to a Residential Treatment Ctr. Are group therapy costs not covered by insurance tax deductible?

[ranast]

My daughter -- who has been diagnosed with several treatable mental illnesses -- was attending an out-of-state all girls Theraputic Boarding School for both therapeutic and safety reasons. After theatening suicide & ending up in the hospital she was sent to a long-term Residential Treatment Ctr (also out-of-state). Are group therapy costs (time with licensed therapists) that are not covered by insurance, tax deductible? Also, is transportation for a parent to go visit her every couple of months tax deductible (the institution -- run by clinical psychologists and psychiatrists -- highly recommended parents come visit as much as possible)?

[AnnetteB · Accepted solution]

Yes, both the costs of the group therapy and the transportation costs for visits that are recommended as part of treatment can be deducted as a medical expense on Schedule A.

For more information, see the IRS Publication 502 Medical and Dental Expenses:  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf

Use the following steps to go to the medical expenses section of your return:

• On the top row of the TurboTax online screen, click on Search (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax locate the search box in the upper right corner)

• This opens a box where you can type in “medical expenses, sch a” (be sure to enter exactly as shown here) and click the magnifying glass (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax, click Find)

• The search results will give you an option to “Jump to medical expenses, sch a”

• Click on the blue “Jump to medical expenses, sch a” link

[edited 3/10/2020 | 11:12 am PST for typo]