How to Claim Prescriptions on Taxes

Prescription drug costs may be written off on taxes.

Under Internal Revenue Service rules, prescription drug costs count as medical expenses, which can be deducted from your taxes if you itemize your deductions. To claim itemized deductions, you must forgo your standard deduction, so you should only claim the medical expenses deduction if the value of all of your itemized deductions exceeds your standard deduction. If you elect to claim the deduction, you will need to complete Schedule A and file your taxes using form 1040.

Things You'll Need

• Form 1040
• Schedule A

Instructions

1. Calculate the sum of all of your medical expenses, including prescription drugs, for the year and write the result on line 1 of Schedule A. Make sure that you keep your receipts and do not include any prescriptions that you were reimbursed for.

2. Copy your adjusted gross income from line 37 of your form 1040 to line 2 of Schedule A.

3. Multiply your adjusted gross income by 0.075 and write the result on line 3 of Schedule A. For example, if your adjusted gross income was $68,000, you would multiply $68,000 by 0.075 to get $5,100.

4. Subtract the result from Step 3 from your total medical expenses and write the result on line 4 of Schedule A. This is the value of your deduction. Continuing the example, if your medical expenses, including prescription drugs, totaled $8,100 for the year, you would subtract $5,100 from $8,100 to get $3,000.

5. Add your medical expenses deduction to any other itemized deductions you claimed on Schedule A and write the result on line 29 of Schedule A and line 40a of form 1040. This amount will be subtracted from your taxable income.

References

• Internal Revenue Service: Publication 502
• IRS: Topic 502 - Medical and Dental Expenses

Resources

• IRS: Schedule A
• IRS: Form 1040