As self-employed, with the tax changes, is there any partial deductions for medical expenses?

[TuckerdogAVL]

I have a BOATLOAD of medical expenses this year. I’m self employed as is my partner. I have the Qualified deduction, I’ve entered all our insurance premiums under biz expenses (vs. adding them in personal expenses) and even with $4000 in medical (and a taxable income of $8500) I’m falling short based on the “new” standard deduction. Is there any way to move these expenses anywhere? Or something I’m missing? Thanks in advance. (PS His income is a loss, mine is a gain this year .. and mine’s higher; and I had the higher medical. Should we consider filing separately? Not sure that’s going to help too much really … except for the medical perhaps. Is there an “easy” way to do the separate … do I set up a new file? 

[Vanessa · Accepted solution]

No, medical expenses, other than the health insurance, are not able to be deductible as business expenses.

Filing separately might actually cause more harm than good because you would both have to itemize then or if one itemized the other would get $0 for their deduction.  However, if his only income is a loss you might be OK. 

So, the best thing to do is to add a separate file and compare your results as Married Filing Joint and then Married Filing separately for both of you. 

[TuckerdogAVL]

I ran the "WHAT-IF" scenario and tweaked some of the line items. And YIKES....because I was still on ACA (which actually requires joint filing, so the question is moot anyway) if I were able to file separately I would pay back a penalty and extra to the tune of $3000. Ugh. Thanks.