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 Last week, Paige, from Houston, TX asked about deducting her food costs for her special needs. <A Tax Pro, with special needs replies> Dear TaxMama, Like Paige I am also gluten intolerant. This intolerance makes it impossible for our small intestine to absorb the nutrients from the food and is caused by a reaction to the gluten in grains such as wheat, rye, oats, barley and other grains. Therefore, we have to buy special foods made out of different grains that do not have gluten in them which are normally more expensive that the comparable food made out of wheat, etc. Because this is a special diet that is basically ordered by a doctor to alleviate a specific medical condition, the extra cost of purchasing this food over the normal food is a medical deduction. The Tax Court has allowed this type of deduction. So, if Paige buys a bag of rice or corn pasta which is $.75 more expensive than the same size bag of wheat pasta, the $.75 is considered a medical expense. This amounts to a lot of work to compile a year's worth of groceries to determine what is the extra cost that could be used as a deduction. In my case, this is normally the only medical deduction that I would have and wouldn't exceed 7 1/2% of my AGI so I don't keep track of it. Hope this helps. Marcia L. Campbell, CPA http://burrcpas.com/ Riverside, CA <Another Tax Pro Tells us> Paige asked about deducting food, and I generally agree with your answer. However in a very narrow case, Green v. Commissioner, 74 T.C. 1229, the Tax Court held that Green, who had AB negative blood which she sold as a business, was allowed to deduct special food supplements of $225 in 1976. In addition, the Court rejected the IRS disallowance of commuting costs and allowed the full cost of travel, $476, to transport the blood to the blood bank! Steve Odem  |
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