Are Gluten Free Foods a Legitimate Tax Deduction?
(Editor’s Note: Clan Thompson and its employees are not qualified tax professionals. The information provided in this article is not a substitute for advice obtained from the Internal Revenue Service or a qualified tax professional. If you have tax questions you should consult an accountant or other qualified tax professional for advice.) Some of our readers have asked us whether it might be possible to deduct the cost of purchasing gluten-free food, because this is an extra expense for a medical reason. According to IRS Publication 502, page 15 (available on the IRS website): “Where an item purchased in a special form primarily to alleviate a physical defect is one that in normal form is ordinarily used for personal, living, or family purposes, the excess of the cost of the special form over the cost of the normal form is a medical expense.” We called IRS, and the agent we talked to confirmed that gluten free foods are a legitimate medical deduction. However, the amount you can includ
