So sorry to hear about your child's problems but glad to know your little guy is getting the extra help he needs at school. There is not any extra tax benefit or deduction to saying that a child under age 13 is disabled on your Federal return. If you have a disabled child over 12 and need to pay for childcare so you can work, saying the child is disabled can enable you to claim the childcare credit. Or if the child is 19 or older, you can still claim the disabled child as your dependent. Otherwise, it does not benefit you to claim that your child is disabled. Your state tax laws may be different.
If you have any medical expenses as a result of his problems, then enter those in Medical Expenses. The therapy dog can be entered as a medical expense.
The medical expense deduction has to meet a rather large threshold before it can affect your return. The amount of medical expenses that will count toward itemization for someone under 65 is the amount that is OVER 10% of your adjusted gross income; for someone 65 or older it would be the amount over 7.5% of your AGI.
You should only enter the amount that you paid in 2016—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
**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**
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