The Internal Revenue Service lets you deduct medical costs as long as they are more than 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. Do not include insurance reimbursements in your total. For a rough mid-year estimate of whether you may meet this or not, subtract $16,000.00 ($8000.00 if single) from your prior year gross income and multiply by .075. It is always a good idea to keep your medical expenses receipts and keep a running tally through the year, because you never know when they may increase dramatically.

Don’t overlook the medical expenses of everyone listed on your tax return. Medical and dental bills for you, your spouse and your dependents count toward reaching the allowable deduction limit. You might be able to count some medical expenses you paid for a parent, even if they are not considered your dependent for exemption purposes.

And while it’s not something we want to think about, don’t forget about medical bills you paid for a deceased dependent in the year they were paid, whether before or after the person passed away.

Once you’re confident you know just whose costs are covered, make sure you don’t miss one. Some allowable, but often overlooked, medical deductions include:

• Travel expenses to and from medical treatments is deductible (at 18 cents per mile for 2006). The IRS changes the allowed mileage rate from time to time, so check the rate at www.IRS.gov
• Insurance payments from already taxed income. This includes the cost of long-term care insurance, up to certain limits based on your age.
• Uninsured medical treatments such as an extra pair of eyeglasses or set of contact lenses, false teeth, hearing aids, and artificial limbs.
• Costs of alcohol- or drug-abuse treatments can be counted on also.
• Laser vision corrective surgery is a tax-allowable procedure.
• Medically necessary costs prescribed by a physician. That means if your doctor told you to add a humidifier to your home’s heating and air conditioning system to relieve your chronic breathing problems, the device (and additional electricity costs to operate it) could be at least partially deductible.
• Some medical conference costs. You can count admission and transportation expenses to the conference if it concerns a chronic illness suffered by you, your spouse or a dependent. Meal and lodging costs while at the seminar, however, are not deductible.
• Weight-loss programs in some instances now might count as a deductible medical expense, joining the stop-smoking programs the agency OKd earlier.The diet program must be medically necessary. Acceptable situations include, for example, when a doctor recommends the regimen to reduce the health risks of obesity or hypertension.

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