Can I deduct medical expenses if my parents paid for them instead of me?

What if my parents technically "loaned" me the money and I'm paying them back? Would that change anything? Or what if we say they paid the hospital directly as my "agent" but the money was considered mine?

The "loan" situation is tricky. If you can document that it was actually a legitimate loan that you're repaying, and you made the payments to the medical provider from your funds (or reimbursed your parents in the same tax year), you might have an argument. But you'd need proper documentation showing this was truly a loan, not a gift. As for the "agent" scenario, this generally doesn't work. The IRS looks at who actually provided the funds. If your parents paid directly, they made the payment - not you. Having them act as your "agent" typically wouldn't transfer the deduction eligibility to you unless you provided the funds first.

So this service can tell you specifically about cases where someone else paid your medical bills? My brother covered some of my treatments last year and I'm confused about the whole thing.

I'm a bit skeptical about these tax AI tools. How accurate is it compared to a human accountant? Last thing I need is getting audited because some algorithm gave me bad advice.

Yes, it completely breaks down who can claim which expenses based on who actually paid them. They have specific guidance for family-paid medical expenses and will show you what documentation you'd need if you're in a "loan" situation like the one mentioned above. For accuracy, I was skeptical too at first, but they use actual tax professionals who review the AI findings, and they guarantee their work. I found it much more detailed than my previous accountant who just gave general answers without really looking at my specific situation.

Wait, this actually works? I thought it was impossible to get the IRS on the phone these days. How much did it cost and did they actually solve your specific question?

This sounds like a scam tbh. Why would I pay a third party to get the IRS to call me when I can just keep calling them myself? It's free to call the IRS even if it takes forever. Do they actually have special access or something?

Yep, I got connected with an actual IRS agent who walked me through exactly how to handle medical expenses paid by family members. It was completely worth it because I was about to file incorrectly which could have caused problems later. Regarding whether it's a scam - I felt the same way at first, but they're not claiming to be the IRS or anything shady. They just have a system that handles the hold times for you. I spent about 3 hours on hold over multiple days before giving up and trying this. You're right that calling the IRS is free, but my time isn't free, and getting an answer quickly was worth it to me.

I'm actually not a dependent on their taxes - I'm 27 and financially independent except for this one-time help with the medical bills. That's why I was hoping there might be some way I could claim the deduction. Sounds like I'm out of luck unless I can document it as a loan like some people suggested above.

Yeah, if you're not a dependent, then the rule is simply whoever paid gets the deduction. Since they paid and they don't itemize, no one gets to benefit from those potential deductions. If you're going to document it as a loan, make sure you do it properly. Create a simple loan agreement showing the amount, repayment terms, and have both parties sign it. Also keep records of your repayments to them. Without documentation, the IRS would likely consider it a gift if it ever came up in an audit.

I did last year, but only because I had a major surgery that cost about $22,000 out of pocket and my income was around $55,000. So my threshold was about $4,125 and I was able to deduct almost $18K in expenses. Made a big difference but it was literally the only year I've ever passed that threshold.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I guess it really does take some extraordinary circumstances to benefit from the medical expense deduction. The 7.5% threshold makes it so hard for average people to qualify. Almost makes me think it's not worth tracking all these medical expenses unless you know for sure you're going to exceed that percentage.

This is really helpful, thank you! The reimbursement option is interesting - I hadn't thought about that. Unfortunately it's probably too late for me since this all happened last year and I don't have $7,800 sitting around to reimburse them right now. But good to know for anyone else reading this who might be in a similar situation earlier in the process. The AGI threshold point is also really important - I should probably calculate whether I'd even benefit from itemizing before spending too much time on this. Sounds like for most people the standard deduction ends up being better anyway.