Can we deduct medical expenses for our non-dependent adult child on our 2025 taxes?

The IRS rules are pretty specific about medical expense deductions for someone who isn't your dependent. Generally, you can only deduct medical expenses you pay for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents. For your daughter to qualify as your dependent, she would need to meet certain tests - including that her gross income must be less than the dependent exemption amount (which is $4,850 for 2024) and you must provide more than half of her support. Based on her $13,500 income, she wouldn't qualify as your dependent due to the income test, even though you're providing substantial support. However, there is a special rule for medical expenses! You might still be able to deduct medical expenses you paid for your daughter even if she isn't your dependent because of the income test. This works if she would have qualified as your dependent except for the income requirement. Regarding expenses exceeding your income - medical expenses are only deductible to the extent they exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, and you need to itemize deductions rather than taking the standard deduction for this to be beneficial.

After my dad had a major health crisis last year, I was in a similar situation but got completely lost in all the tax rules. I found this AI tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that actually helped me figure out my medical expense deduction situation. I uploaded my dad's medical bills and it analyzed exactly what was deductible and what wasn't. The surprising thing was it caught several expenses I didn't realize qualified! It also explained that special rule about claiming medical expenses for non-dependents that fail only the gross income test - exactly your situation. What really helped was that it walked me through the documentation I needed to keep for the potential audit scenario. For medical expense deductions above a certain threshold, apparently the audit risk increases.

Just wanted to follow up about using taxr.ai that someone recommended earlier. I decided to try it with my mother-in-law's messy medical records situation, and it was honestly a game-changer. The system automatically categorized her expenses into deductible vs. non-deductible, which saved me HOURS of research. It also explained exactly how the 7.5% AGI threshold worked with her specific numbers. Most helpfully, it flagged several expenses we were missing - like the mileage to and from medical appointments and some medical equipment costs we didn't realize qualified. What I found most useful was how it handled our exact situation with supporting a family member who isn't technically a dependent. It laid out the exact criteria we needed to meet and helped us document everything properly for tax time.

Hey there - I had a similar situation with my brother's medical expenses last year. One thing nobody's mentioned yet is that you might need to contact the IRS directly to get clarification on your specific situation. That's what I ended up having to do. BUT - fair warning - I spent HOURS trying to get through to them. After being on hold for literally 3+ hours multiple times, I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me a callback from the IRS in under 45 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent I spoke with confirmed I could deduct my brother's medical expenses even though he wasn't technically my dependent because of the income test exception. They also explained exactly what documentation I needed to keep, which saved me from a potential audit headache.

So I was super skeptical about that Claimyr service mentioned above (the one that supposedly gets the IRS to call you back). It sounded like total BS to me, but I was desperate after trying for TWO WEEKS to get through to ask about medical expenses for my adult son. I hate to admit when I'm wrong, but... I tried it and got a call back from the IRS in about 35 minutes. The agent actually specialized in medical deductions and confirmed exactly what I needed to know - that I could claim my son's expenses even though he made too much to be my dependent, as long as he met all the other dependent tests. He also explained that I needed to keep records showing I paid the bills directly to the providers (not giving my son money to pay them himself) and that my son would need to provide a statement that he's not claiming these expenses on his own return. Never thought I'd say this, but sometimes the "too good to be true" things actually work!

One thing no one has mentioned yet is the potential impact on your investment accounts. Since you mentioned you're funding these medical expenses from investments, be really careful about the tax implications there. If you're selling investments in taxable accounts to cover medical costs, you might be triggering capital gains taxes that could offset any benefit from the medical expense deduction. I learned this the hard way when helping my parents last year.

Has anyone mentioned the possibility of having your daughter claim these expenses on HER return instead? If she paid ANY of these expenses herself, even if you gave her the money to do so, she might benefit more from claiming them on her taxes since her income is lower and the 7.5% threshold would be easier to meet.

I've been following this discussion and wanted to add something important about HSAs that might help your situation. If either you or your wife has a Health Savings Account, you can use HSA funds to pay for your daughter's medical expenses even if she's not your dependent - as long as she qualifies as your dependent for medical expense purposes (which based on the discussion above, she might). The advantage of using HSA funds is that the money comes out tax-free, which is better than taking taxable distributions from your IRAs and then hoping to get a medical expense deduction. HSA distributions for qualified medical expenses are never taxed, regardless of your age. Also, even if you don't have enough in your HSA now, you can pay the expenses out of pocket, keep the receipts, and reimburse yourself from the HSA years later when you have more funds available. There's no time limit on HSA reimbursements as long as the expense occurred after your HSA was established. This could be a much more tax-efficient approach than what you're currently doing with your retirement account withdrawals.

One thing that hasn't been fully addressed is the timing strategy for your situation. Since you mentioned you're retired and had to pull from investments to cover these expenses, you might want to consider spreading some of the medical payments across tax years if possible. For example, if you have large medical bills that haven't been paid yet, you could potentially pay some in late 2024 and others in early 2025 to optimize which tax year gets the deduction benefit. This is especially important since medical expenses are only deductible to the extent they exceed 7.5% of your AGI. Given that your investment withdrawals are increasing your AGI, you might find that in a year with lower AGI (perhaps if you withdraw less from retirement accounts), a smaller amount of medical expenses would qualify for the deduction. Also, regarding your question about tax-deferred accounts - if you're over 59½, you might consider doing a Roth conversion in a low-income year and using those converted funds for medical expenses. While you'd pay tax on the conversion, future medical expense payments would come from an account that grows tax-free, and you wouldn't be forced to take RMDs later. The key is looking at this as a multi-year tax planning strategy rather than just focusing on one tax year.

I wanted to share my experience as someone who went through a similar situation with my elderly father's medical expenses. One critical detail that helped me was understanding the "multiple support agreement" option that might apply to your situation. Since you mentioned your daughter earned $13,500, she clearly fails the gross income test for being claimed as a dependent. However, if multiple family members are contributing to her support (maybe siblings, grandparents, etc.), you might be able to use Form 2120 to designate one person to claim the medical expense deduction even if no single person provides more than 50% of her support. Also, I learned the hard way about the importance of paying providers directly rather than reimbursing your daughter. The IRS is very strict about this - if you give your daughter money and she pays the bill, you can't claim the deduction. But if you pay the provider directly (even if your daughter is present or signs forms), then you can potentially claim it. One more tip: keep detailed records not just of the payments, but also of your daughter's total support costs for the year. This includes housing, food, utilities, insurance, etc. You'll need to show that you provided more than half of her total support to meet that dependency test, even though the income test disqualifies her from being your dependent. The documentation requirements are extensive, but it's worth it if you can legitimately claim these deductions given the amounts you're dealing with.

I've been dealing with a very similar situation with my mother's medical expenses, and one thing that really helped clarify things for me was getting a consultation with a tax professional who specializes in these complex dependency situations. What I learned is that the IRS looks at each payment individually when determining who can claim the deduction. So those copays and prescriptions where you gave your daughter money to pay directly - unfortunately, those specific expenses would need to be claimed on her return if anyone is going to claim them, since she was the one who actually made the payment to the provider. However, the good news is that for the support test calculation, ALL the money you provide counts toward support - whether it's paid directly to providers or given to her for living expenses. So yes, car payments, phone bills, rent, groceries, utilities, and any other living expenses you've been covering all factor into that support calculation. Keep detailed records of everything because you'll need to show the total dollar amount of support you provided versus what she provided for herself. One strategy that worked for us going forward was to make sure we paid all medical providers directly, even if it meant calling the provider to pay over the phone or mailing checks when we couldn't be there in person. It's a bit more work, but it ensures we can claim those deductions if we meet all the other tests. The documentation requirements are indeed extensive, but given the amounts you're dealing with, it's definitely worth organizing everything properly. A spreadsheet tracking all payments by category (medical, housing, food, transportation, etc.) will be invaluable come tax time.