How do YOU classify your drugs?

I use a category called "sundries" (can't remember if it was part of Quicken base or if I added it). It accounts for most "personal care" items not tax-deductible (like aspirin, vitamins, toothpaste). My prescriptions are "Medical:Medicine".

So if you bought say milk of magnesia tablets..... that would be under the category of personal care or groceries? And not under the drug category/

On Fri 29 Apr 2005 09:08:19a, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

Same here, any insurance re-imbursements are same category they are re- imbursing and are entered as negative amounts (handled just like a store return).

We use the Category Medical with a bunch of sub-categories Here's ours:

Medical Dentist Doctor Insurance Misc Orthodontist Rx Medicine Rx Misc Vision TOTAL Medical

Medical:Misc is for OTC medications, supplies that are not reimbursable by insurance or FSA.

Medical:Rx Misc is for medical supplies that ARE reimbursable (e.g., asthma nebulizer, CPAP,etc)

Now I suppose if I wanted to get good numbers for the Schedule A worksheet, I'd break out Lab and X-ray fees and Hospital charges, but I just chuck these into "Doctor."

The thing to keep in mind is what to you want your system to tell you? If it's not important to separate OTC "medicine" (e.g. Tylenol) from Band-Aids, then one category (like Medical:Misc) will do. If you wanted to track them separately, you could break them apart but it makes entering transactions harder.

The ability to total all the sub-categories (so you can see all Medical together) was an obvious thing but was added only recently ISTR (2003?).

HTH,

I missed the staff meeting but the minutes show "Mike B" wrote back on Thu, 28 Apr 2005

For some people.

My silly response was "you classify your drugs according to "Prescription, Over the Counter and 'Recreational'". Forty years ago, it came up on the Bursar Bill as "Library Fines."

-- pyotr filipivich Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?

And that's why I'm soliciting for ideas here

Thanks everyone!

It's a pity Intuit doesn't provide a way to carry this split-up information into the corresponding Turbotax worksheet. For instance, all medical expenses show up on the worksheet line for medicine. Does anyone know if there's a tax reporting requirement to actually separate them out? Mike

"Mike Blake-Knox" wrote

Agreed, T-Tax & Q don't sychronize on this.

For 1040 Sched A medical deductions discussed in this thread there isn't. All of these expenses end up on line 1 of Sched A.

I think the tax prep programs categorize various medical expenses to stimulate the TP into thinking about all possible eligible expenses.

Only prescription drugs are deductible as Medical Expenses on Schedule A. However, if you have a qualified Medical Reimbursement Plan, such as an FSA or a Medical Savings Account, IRS rules say you can be reimbursed with pre-tax dollars by those plans for over the counter medications taken for an illness or condition. (I don't have the exact here.) OTC Prilosec and Metamucil can be reimbursed with pre-tax dollars if taken under a doctor's direction. Vitamins cannot not under almost all circumstances.

-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

If you have a medical reimbursement plan you need two categories: Prescriptions and OTC Medications.

-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

Thanks that info helps a lot!

I do take some OTC drugs and compounds that are part of my doctors orders.

I have a Medical category with subcategories named "Rx" and "OTC" for prescriptions vs over-the-counter stuff. Only the Rx category is tax deductible. I have a bunch of other subcategories for medical such as: doctor, eye care, transportation (deductible medical transportation expenses), insurance (for health insurance premiums), etc.

Guy

Great!

exactly the suggestions I'm looking for!

Thanks guy!

See this article on the IRS Webb site for more info.

-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

It is my understanding that you cannot both 1) be reimbursed with pre-tax dollars and 2) deduct that expense on Schedule A. It is one or the other.

dick w

That is my (and my CPA's) understanding as well.

On Mon 02 May 2005 02:16:32a, Dick Weaver wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@ix.netcom.com:

I don't think that was implied. Everything is usually just netted together for the expenses that are deductible and with Quicken that is automatic if you use the same categories for the reimbursements.

snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Yep, I would put it in the grocery category. I don't care to track to that additional level of detail. It serves no purpose for my needs.

"Jim Nugent" wrote in news:T2tce.1272$2f2.1163 @newssvr19.news.prodigy.com:

Here is an example of personal choice: Medical:Insurance vs Insurance:Medical

They are both appropriate and I see no reason to do it one way or the other. In my case, I decided to group the insurances together.

So I have: Insurance:

-Auto

-Medical

-Home

-Life etc.