I understand placing a HS student in a specialized school may be qualified medical expenses… however, does anyone know whether tuition for placing a student in specialized college such as Landmark or out of State college such as U of Arizonia’s SALT program qualified as medical expenses? my point is without the specialized support, the student will drop out, hence the out of state tuition becomes a necessity…
thanks
just found the landmark link, I think Landmark does, but what about other colleges? http://www.landmark.edu/admissions/tuition-and-financial-aid/making-landmark-affordable/
That sounds more like a question for your CPA, not random strangers on a college financial aid forum.
I do have a CPA and I can tell you not CPAs knew, but random strangers who have experience applying tuition as medical expenses can tell me whether it is even possible and I did search as well
The CPA is the one who has to agree with the position if she is taking the responsibility of signing the return as a paid preparer.
Not everyone has a CPA to consult – lots of people us tax preparation software these days.
I would try an association related to child’s disability where you have lots of people who may encounter the same issue. Off the top of my head, I wonder if there is a difference between taking medical expenses for HS (which is somewhat mandatory) and for college, which is not. Lots of kids don’t go to college so I don’t know that any of it would be considered a necessity from a tax perspective (not a personal one).
I know with food for my celiac, I can take medical expense for difference in cost between regular and gluten free food, but I would have to track every bit of what I spend and then it has to be a certain % of income before it kicks in so not worth it for me. May be a similar thing? Interested to see what you find.
I think it is possible as I found in the link for Landmark…@Madison85, yes the CPA has to sign off for it, however, if the CPA does not know, a parent can bring to the CPA all necessary documents, publication for the CPA to read… I am quite sure not all CPA knew…
If you read the tax requirements for deducting ‘special education’ (I think it was 502? It is part of the Landmark link you posted) you’ll see that the special education school has to be under doctor’s prescription AND that the main purpose of the school has to be to overcome the disability.
I think you’d have a hard time justifying that the main purpose of Arizona SALT was to overcome the disability since the main purpose would be to get a college degree. It is not to overcome the disability, but to work with the disability. You might have some hope of deducting the difference between a program at your state school that has no disability services and SALT.
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think you'd have a hard time justifying that the main purpose of Arizona SALT was to overcome the disability since the main purpose would be to get a college degree. It is not to overcome the disability, but to work with the disability.
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I agree that this seems to be an obstacle.
I think that simply needing a special program in order to get a college degree wouldn’t qualify.
And as noted, a doctor’s note is required that the program is to overcome the disability.