Do I need to enter health insurance premiums?

[nadiamh]

I had employee sponsored health care and paid my portion I believe pretax, but need to look that up.  I also paid for vision and dental insurance.  Can I deduct that on both federal and state?  I am in the state portion now and now it has me questioning if I need to go back to the federal part of taxes as well.

[DanielV01 · Accepted solution]

It depends, but it is unlikely you will enter these.  As you mention in your question, usually employer-sponsored health insurance is paid with pretax dollars (and usually reported as a DD in one of your box 12 entries).  Thus, while there are some states that allow for a deduction for out-of pocket (or after-tax) health care premiums paid, you will not claim pretax premiums because that would be a double-deduction, which is not allowed.  

However, if you do find out that your premiums were paid with after tax dollars, you may enter these in the federal and state sections.  For federal, you will need all of your medical expenses to reach 10% or greater of your AGI before you may start counting deductions, and then have enough itemized deductions to be more than your standard deduction before you see any tax benefits, but it does not hurt to try.  But you would see a direct state deduction.  I live in a state that allows this deduction, but it must be an after-tax payment to qualify.