If I paid a large amount of medical expense for my parents outside US, can I claim it on schedule A? Thanks.
schedule A medical expense
Jan 26, 2010
2 Replies
Section 213 does not say that foreign hospitals are disallowed, so I think the answer is yes. Of course, it has to be a licensed hospital in the foreign country. Travel and lodging, up to a max limit, are allowed as long as the point of the trip was medical care, not vacation.
There is no requirement that a qualified medical expense be incurred on US territory. As such, as long as the expense is a qualified medical expense and your parents are your dependents as defined in Pub 502 (the definition of a dependent for medical expense is less stringent than the definition for claiming an exemption) then you can take a deduction. One requirement is that your parent is a U.S. citizen or national or a resident of the United States, Canada, or Mexico.
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