medical expense - go by service date or payment date?

[jameszhjw]

I have high medical expenses, per the services received in December 2019. 

So the service date was within 2019, but when receiving the billing statement, it's the end of Dec 2019, and the payment was made in 2020.

Will the medical expense go by the service date or payment date?

say, for my above medical expense, should I report it to year 2019 tax return or year 2020 tax return?

Thanks.

[xmasbaby0]

You can enter medical expenses for the year in which you paid them.  The year the charges were incurred is not relevant.  If you paid the expenses in 2020 they can go on your 2020 tax return which you will prepare next year.

Please note that there is a tough threshold to meet when claiming medical expenses, and they will only affect your refund or tax due if you meet that threshold AND have enough itemized deductions to exceed your standard deduction.  Only the amount of medical expenses that are OVER 7.5% of your AGI "count" as a possible itemized deduction.