Why are medical expenses broken down into such minutia . . .

[JohnH1]

What the hey! . . . there are EIGHT separate categories with 5-6 subcategories of medical expenses but who the heII breaks this down like this in there bookkeeping?  We pay insurance and we have a **bleep**load of co-pays and that's all we know. The only thing I record in Quickbooks is pharmacy and all other co-pays. I do the books for someone else and I dont actually see every medical bill and even Kaiser does not break it out to match a tax return when I do my own taxes. . .
I know it's not Intuits fault but how do you tax pros make  it simple for yourselves? Do you just skip it and go strait to the form?

[xmasbaby0]

When you enter medical expenses in TurboTax, it asks you a whole lot of questions to help you include everything that can be entered.  Really what matters in the end is the total of all of it; that is what will go on your tax form, so don't get too frazzled trying to make sure everything is in the "right" category as long as you enter it all, and do not enter anything twice. 

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)

[JohnH1]

xmasbaby0 . . . Did you even READ the question???

A guy a=has a surgery and that bill he has to pay is for multiple medical expense categories but the bill does not break them all down as separate line items, they just charge you and you pay it. What line should that single surgery copay go on.
I dont need canned copy/past answers

I guess I asked this in the wrong section(?)

[xmasbaby0 · Accepted solution]

@JohnH1 Yes, indeed I did read your question.   You were stressing over the multiple categories and places to enter various medical expenses in the TT software.   And.....you do not really have to get so stressed about it.  All that ends up on your Schedule A for medical expenses is the grand total.  So, you could literally (if you want to) just add up all of your out of pocket medical expenses for the year and enter that one number.   The software does the rest.   The many questions asked in the medical expense section help some users to remember the stuff they can enter---like office visit co-pay, RX co-pays, medical mileage to and from appointment and procedures, ambulance transport, etc. etc.   Thus --- the many questions.  But none of that goes to the IRS.  TT is just asking all of those questions to help you get it all entered so that TT has the right total to put on your Schedule A.

[dmertz · Accepted solution]

My guess is that TurboTax categorizes everything to remind people what qualifies as medical expenses even though breaking it down like that serves no purpose on the tax return.  If you don't want to track the details that closely in TurboTax, you could just put the entire amount of medical expenses in one category and ignore the other categories.  

[JohnH1]

That was a helpful answer.