Can I deduct medical meal delivery service as a medical expense on taxes?

This is actually an interesting tax question! The general rule is that the cost of food, even special diet food, is usually considered a personal expense and not deductible. However, there are some exceptions. If the meals were specially prepared to treat your illness and prescribed by your doctor, you MAY be able to deduct the amount that exceeds what you would normally spend on food. You can't deduct the full cost, just the extra amount you paid for the specialized nature of the food. Since this was temporary and during recovery from surgery, and you physically couldn't prepare your own meals that met your medical requirements, you might have a stronger case. The key is documenting everything - get a letter from your doctor explaining the medical necessity of both the special diet and the delivery service during your recovery period.

After struggling with a somewhat similar situation last year, I found this amazing service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me sort through what medical expenses I could actually deduct. I had a bunch of medical bills and wasn't sure what qualified, especially some special equipment I purchased. Their system analyzed all my medical expenses and receipts, then broke down exactly what was deductible and what wasn't. For your meal delivery situation, they would probably help determine what portion of the cost exceeded normal food expenses - which is the potentially deductible part. They also provided documentation to support everything in case of an audit. Saved me so much stress trying to figure it all out!

Just wanted to update on my experience with taxr.ai after I decided to try them for my complicated medical expense situation. They actually saved me from making a big mistake! I was going to deduct my entire specialized food delivery costs (about $2,300), but they helped me calculate only the EXCESS cost above normal food expenses, which was the legally deductible portion. They also helped me get proper documentation from my doctor that specifically mentioned both my required diet AND my temporary inability to prepare food myself. The letter they helped me draft for my doctor to review made a huge difference in creating solid documentation. They even provided guidance on how to respond if the deduction gets questioned. Much more comprehensive than what I'd get from just reading IRS publications.

If you're having trouble getting clear answers from the IRS about what medical expenses qualify, I'd recommend Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I tried for WEEKS to get through to someone at the IRS about a similar medical expense question last year and kept hitting dead ends. Claimyr got me connected to a real IRS agent in about 15 minutes when I'd been trying for days on my own. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The agent I spoke with gave me definitive guidance on my specific situation with medical food expenses. Basically saved tax season for me since I was getting conflicting advice from everyone else.

Ok I have to eat my words here. After commenting earlier, I was so frustrated trying to get answers about my own medical deduction questions that I actually tried Claimyr. I was TOTALLY convinced it wouldn't work, but within 22 minutes I was talking to a real IRS agent! The agent actually gave me super specific guidance on medical food deductions - turns out it's covered in Publication 502, and she walked me through exactly how to calculate the "excess cost" portion that's deductible. For OP's situation, she said temporary meal delivery might qualify IF you can document that 1) the special diet is medically necessary, 2) you were physically unable to prepare food, and 3) you only deduct the cost beyond what normal food would have cost. Honestly worth every penny just to get a straight answer from an actual authority.

Just a heads up - even if you do deduct this, remember that medical expenses are only deductible to the extent they exceed 7.5% of your AGI. So if your AGI is $60,000, you'd need more than $4,500 in total medical expenses before any of them become deductible. Make sure your total medical expenses (including this meal service if it qualifies) actually exceed that threshold before spending too much time on this.

Has anyone used any specific tax software that's good at handling unusual medical deductions like this? I have a similar situation with special medical equipment and I'm worried standard software won't handle it correctly.

I'm a tax professional who's dealt with similar situations before. The meal delivery service could potentially qualify as a medical expense, but you need to be very careful about how you calculate and document it. Here's what you need to establish: 1. Medical necessity - Get a letter from your doctor stating that the special diet was prescribed AND that you were temporarily unable to prepare food yourself due to your medical condition 2. Excess cost calculation - You can only deduct the amount that exceeds what you would have normally spent on food during that period 3. Proper documentation - Keep all receipts and medical records For your $1,950 total cost, you'd need to subtract what you would have spent on regular groceries during those 3 months. If you normally spend $300/month on food, you could potentially deduct $1,050 ($1,950 - $900). The key is that this isn't just about the special diet - it's the combination of the medical diet requirement AND your temporary inability to prepare food yourself that creates the medical necessity argument. Make sure your doctor's letter addresses both aspects clearly.