If you want to claim your medical expenses against your taxable income for the 2004/5 tax year, you must complete a detailed schedule listing all the medical accounts you paid yourself and did not recover from a registered medical scheme.
You may also claim your contributions to a medical scheme, but not the portion that your employer pays.
If you do not belong to a medical scheme, you can claim the medical expenses you have paid, but you need to list each and every one separately.
Hugh Knight, a Cape Town tax consultant, says you must complete the detailed schedule in the brochure that accompanies your tax return. If you run out of space to list all your medical bills, use a photocopy, he says.
Before you go to the trouble of listing your expenses, consider whether you could be entitled to a deduction. If you are 65 years of age or older, and not a member of a scheme, you can claim all your medical expenses. If you are 65 years or older and are a member of a scheme, you can claim all your unrecouped expenses plus your contributions to a scheme.
If you are younger than 65, you are only entitled to deduct the medical expenses that exceed five percent of your annual taxable income. Work out what your taxable income is (after deductions, but before deducting your medical expenses) and then calculate five percent of this amount.
Only if you think your medical expenses will exceed this amount, is it worth your while, listing all of them.
The medical expenses you claim must for services rendered by a registered medical practitioner, hospital or clinic, or for prescribed medicines supplied, to yourself, your spouse, dependent children and step-children.