How should I report Long-Term Care (LTC) insurance premiums on my tax return?

Hey everyone, I'm a bit confused about how to handle my Long-Term Care insurance premiums on my taxes this year. My wife and I just started paying for LTC policies last April (about $4,200 annually for both of us combined), and I'm trying to figure out if these are deductible and where exactly they should go on our tax return. We're both 58, and our financial advisor recommended getting these policies now while the premiums are still reasonable. I've heard something about them being potentially deductible as medical expenses, but I'm not sure if we meet the threshold for itemizing or if there's another way to claim them. Does anyone know the proper way to report LTC premiums? Do they count as qualified medical expenses? And is there an age-based limit to how much we can deduct? Any help would be really appreciated as I'm gathering all our documents for tax season!

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20 comments

Natasha Petrov

•8M

Yes, Long-Term Care insurance premiums are considered qualified medical expenses, but there are some important details to understand. LTC premiums can be included with your other medical expenses on Schedule A if you itemize deductions. However, you can only deduct medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. So if your AGI is $100,000, you'd need more than $7,500 in total medical expenses before you'd see any tax benefit. There are also age-based limits on how much of your LTC premiums count as medical expenses. For 2024 taxes (filing in 2025), the deductible limit for people ages 51-60 is $1,790 per person. So even though you're paying $2,100 per person, you can only count $1,790 per person toward your medical expenses total. If you're self-employed, there's a potential additional benefit: self-employed individuals can deduct LTC premiums (up to the age-based limits) as an adjustment to income on Schedule 1, without needing to itemize.

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Natasha Petrov

•8M

If you're paying for LTC insurance through a cafeteria plan with pre-tax dollars, you cannot claim those premiums as medical expenses on your tax return. Since you've already received the tax benefit (by not paying income tax on that money), you can't double-dip by claiming it as a deduction too. For employer-provided plans, the situation is a bit different. If your employer pays directly for your LTC insurance (not through a cafeteria plan), those premiums are generally excluded from your taxable income altogether, up to certain limits. But any premiums that exceed the age-based limits should be included in your taxable wages.

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Amina Diallo

•8M

I've been struggling with similar LTC premium questions and found this amazing tool at https://taxr.ai that actually analyzes your tax documents and tells you exactly how to handle these specialized deductions. I was totally lost on how to report my LTC premiums correctly, especially with the age-based limits. The system actually looked at my policy statements and insurance documents, then explained exactly which forms I needed and how to report the premiums correctly. It even calculated my age-based limit and told me what percentage of my premiums qualified based on my situation.

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Amina Diallo

•8M

It works alongside most tax software including TurboTax. You upload your documents to taxr.ai first, get the guidance on how to properly classify everything, then you just follow those instructions when entering info into TurboTax. It actually made the process much clearer because TurboTax doesn't specifically ask about LTC premiums - you need to know where to enter them yourself. As for accuracy, it's been spot-on for my situation. It handles state-specific rules too - I'm in New York where we can deduct more of our LTC premiums on our state return than federal, and it correctly identified this difference and provided separate guidance for my state filing.

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Hiroshi Nakamura

•8M

I wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai after being skeptical. I finally gave it a try with my tax documents this weekend, and wow - what a difference! It recognized my LTC policy immediately and showed me exactly where to report the premiums on my return. The age-based limitations were automatically calculated based on my birthdate, which saved me from having to look up the tables myself. Even better, it identified that in my state (California), I could deduct more of my LTC premiums than federal allows. None of the major tax software programs caught this state-specific benefit. Honestly wish I'd known about this tool years ago when I first got my policy!

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Isabella Costa

•8M

If you need to contact the IRS about how to properly report your LTC premiums (which I had to do last year when I had a weird situation with policies purchased overseas), use https://claimyr.com or check out their demo at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. I spent DAYS trying to get through to the IRS with no luck - kept getting disconnected or put on eternal holds. Claimyr got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes who answered all my questions about how to handle foreign LTC policies on my US return. The agent was surprisingly helpful and walked me through exactly where to report the premiums and how to document the foreign policy information.

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Isabella Costa

•8M

It works by continuously navigating the IRS phone tree and waiting on hold for you. When they finally get through to an agent, you get a call connecting you directly. It's not a backdoor - it's just automating the painful waiting process so you don't have to do it yourself. They don't actually hear your tax questions or get involved in the call at all. Once you're connected, it's just you talking directly with the IRS agent, completely private. I was skeptical too, but when I needed specific guidance on my foreign LTC policy situation that wasn't covered clearly in any IRS publication, getting actual official guidance was worth it.

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Freya Andersen

•8M

I feel like I need to update my skeptical comment about Claimyr. After struggling for THREE HOURS yesterday trying to reach the IRS about my LTC premium reporting question (and getting disconnected twice), I broke down and tried the service. Within 25 minutes, my phone rang and I was talking to an actual IRS representative who confirmed exactly how to handle my situation. The agent explained that my specific LTC policy (which is a hybrid life insurance/LTC policy) has special reporting requirements and only a portion of the premium is eligible for the medical expense deduction. None of this was clear from the IRS publications, and I would have reported it incorrectly. Sometimes you really do need to talk to a human at the IRS!

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Eduardo Silva

•8M

Another important thing to know about LTC premiums - if your policy is "tax-qualified" (most are nowadays, but check with your insurer), then benefits you receive are generally tax-free. My mom started receiving LTC benefits last year and was worried about tax implications, but since her policy was tax-qualified, the benefits didn't count as taxable income. This is different from the premium deduction issue, but still an important tax consideration for LTC insurance.

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Eduardo Silva

•8M

Most policies issued after 1997 are tax-qualified, but you'll want to confirm with your insurance company directly. Tax-qualified policies will generally state that they meet the requirements of Section 7702B of the Internal Revenue Code. Look for language about "triggering events" for benefits that include being unable to perform at least 2 out of 6 "activities of daily living" (eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, and continence) or requiring substantial supervision due to cognitive impairment. These are IRS requirements for tax-qualified policies.

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Luca Esposito

•3M

Great question about LTC premiums! Just to add to what others have shared - make sure you keep detailed records of your premium payments throughout the year. The IRS may want to see documentation that your policy is indeed qualified LTC insurance if you're audited. Also, don't forget that if either of you becomes self-employed in the future (even part-time consulting), the rules change significantly in your favor. Self-employed individuals can deduct LTC premiums as an above-the-line deduction (on Schedule 1) up to the age-based limits, which means you don't have to meet the 7.5% AGI threshold or itemize to get the benefit. One more tip: if you're planning any major medical expenses this year (dental work, surgery, etc.), it might push you over that 7.5% threshold where your LTC premiums would actually provide a tax benefit. Worth running the numbers to see if timing any elective procedures could help maximize your deductions.

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Malik Johnson

•3M

This is really helpful advice about keeping detailed records! I'm new to LTC insurance and hadn't thought about the documentation aspect. Quick question - when you mention "above-the-line deduction" for self-employed individuals, does that apply even if the self-employment income is relatively small? Like if I do some freelance work on the side that only brings in a few thousand dollars a year, would I still qualify for that better treatment of the LTC premiums? Also, your point about timing medical expenses is smart. We've been putting off some dental work, so maybe we should look at our total medical expenses for the year and see if it makes sense to bunch them together.

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