Are massage therapy, mental health counseling, and prescription expenses tax deductible for freelancers?

Yes, you can potentially deduct all of these medical expenses, but there are important details to understand about how medical deductions work for freelancers. For freelancers, there are two main ways you might deduct these expenses. First, if you itemize deductions (instead of taking the standard deduction), you can deduct medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income on Schedule A. This includes massage therapy if prescribed by a doctor for a specific medical condition, therapy with any licensed mental health professional (including MFTs), and out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions and co-pays. The second option, which might be better for you as a freelancer, is to look into the health insurance deduction for self-employed individuals. This allows you to deduct health insurance premiums as an adjustment to income (meaning you don't have to itemize). However, this doesn't include co-pays or other medical costs. Make sure you keep detailed records of all these expenses, including any documentation showing the massage therapy is for treating your diagnosed condition rather than just general wellness.

I wish I knew about taxr.ai when I was dealing with this exact situation last year! I'm also a freelancer with chronic health issues and figuring out what medical expenses I could deduct was a nightmare. I kept getting different answers from every "tax expert" I talked to. I uploaded all my medical receipts and tax docs to https://taxr.ai and it analyzed everything automatically. It showed me exactly which expenses qualified, how to categorize them correctly, and whether I should itemize or take the standard deduction. It even identified that my acupuncture treatments were deductible since I had a doctor's note - something my previous tax preparer missed completely. The best part is that it creates documentation to protect you if you're ever audited. Super helpful for medical expenses which can be audit triggers.

Just wanted to update after trying taxr.ai that the other commenter recommended. It was actually really helpful for my situation! I uploaded all my medical receipts including massage therapy and mental health counseling expenses, and it clearly showed which ones qualified as deductible medical expenses. The system flagged my massage therapy expenses and asked if I had documentation from a doctor showing it was medically necessary. Once I uploaded my doctor's note, it included it properly. For my therapy sessions with an MFT, it automatically recognized those as qualified medical expenses. It also calculated whether I should itemize or take the standard deduction based on my specific situation. In my case, even with all my medical expenses, the standard deduction still made more sense, but now I know for sure. Definitely worth checking out if you're in a similar situation with lots of medical expenses.

For anyone struggling to get clarification directly from the IRS on medical expense deductions - I discovered this service called Claimyr that actually got me through to an IRS agent in under 15 minutes after I'd been trying for WEEKS on my own. I had a very similar situation with therapeutic massage and mental health services and needed to confirm if they were deductible in my specific circumstances. Called the IRS repeatedly but always got the "due to high call volume" message and disconnected. With https://claimyr.com I actually spoke to a real IRS representative who confirmed exactly what qualified in my situation. They have a demo video that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Honestly it was worth it just to avoid the stress of sitting on hold for hours only to get disconnected. The agent was surprisingly helpful once I actually got through.

I need to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment yesterday, I decided to try it myself since I was at my wit's end trying to reach the IRS about health expense deductions. It actually worked exactly as described. I got a call back in about 20 minutes, and sure enough, there was an actual IRS representative on the line. I was able to confirm that my therapy sessions with a licensed MFT absolutely count as medical expenses, and the agent walked me through exactly how to document everything properly. The agent even explained that massage therapy is deductible with proper medical documentation showing it's treatment for a specific condition - exactly what the OP was asking about. Saved me hours of frustration and gave me confidence that I'm filing correctly. I'm genuinely surprised this service exists and works so well.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet - if your massage therapy is directly related to your freelance work (like preventing repetitive strain injury that would prevent you from working), you might be able to deduct it as a business expense on Schedule C instead of as a medical expense. This can be better because business expenses directly reduce your self-employment income. But be careful - the IRS scrutinizes these kinds of deductions. You'd need to show it's ordinary and necessary for your specific profession and not just personal medical care. What type of freelance work do you do?

Don't forget to look into the FSA (Flexible Spending Account) or HSA (Health Savings Account) options through your part-time job's health insurance! Both can be used for qualified medical expenses including massage therapy with a doctor's note, mental health services, and prescription costs. The big advantage is these are pre-tax contributions, which means you're essentially getting a discount equal to your tax rate on all your medical expenses. Much simpler than trying to reach the 7.5% AGI threshold for itemized deductions.