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Edited version of private ruling
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Ruling
Subject: Medical expense Tax Offset
Are you entitled to include the expenses for nutritional supplements as medical expenses for the purpose of the medical expenses tax offset?
No.
This ruling applies for the following periods:
Year ended 30 June 2007
Year ended 30 June 2008
Year ended 30 June 2009
Year ended 30 June 2010
Year ending 30 June 2011
The scheme commences on:
1 July 2006
Relevant facts and circumstances
You underwent major surgery.
Since your operation your medical practitioner has provided a list of nutritional supplements to aid your recovery on a long term basis.
Your doctor does not stipulate the dosages by script.
You purchase the supplements from your pharmacy.
You require and rely on the supplements to consistently perform your everyday activities.
Your medical practitioner oversees your treatment.
Detailed reasoning
A medical expense tax offset is available under section 159P of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA 1936), where you paid for medical expenses in an income year for yourself or a dependant whilst an Australian resident. The medical expense tax offset is only available if the amount of medical expenses (reduced by any entitlement to reimbursement from a health fund or government authority) in an income year exceeds the threshold amount.
Medical expenses are defined in subsection 159P(4) of the ITAA 1936 to include payments to a legally qualified medical practitioner, nurse or chemist, or a public or private hospital, in respect of an illness or operation or payments for therapeutic treatment provided the treatment is administered at the direction of a legally qualified medical practitioner.
Therapeutic treatment as a concept is concerned with healing or curing, rather than preventing the need for therapy. Therapeutic treatment involves the exercise of professional skill in the medical field in a way that normally involves the person administering the treatment using drugs or physical or mental processes of one kind or another for the purpose of curing or managing a disease.
For treatment to be regarded as being administered by direction of a legally qualified medical practitioner, the treatment needs to be advised, prescribed or ordered by a legally qualified medical practitioner. It also requires monitoring to some extent by the medical practitioner.
It was held in Case A53 69 ATC 313; 15 CTBR (NS) Case 30 that the mere suggestion or recommendation by a medical practitioner that the patient undergoes therapeutic treatment is not sufficient for the payment to qualify as medical expenses.
In your case, after your operation, you were provided with a list of nutritional supplements recommended by your doctor in aiding your recovery.
Supplements fall within the definition of therapeutic treatment. The cost of the supplements will only be eligible medical expenses where the supplements are prescribed by a legally qualified medical practitioner. This is regardless of whether the supplements are purchased from chemists, naturopaths, health food stores or supermarkets.
The nutritional supplements you purchase have not been prescribed or ordered by a qualified medical practitioner but have been recommended to take on a long term basis. The mere suggestion or recommendation by your medical practitioner is not enough for the expenses to qualify as medical expenses.
Therefore, you are not entitled to include the cost of the nutritional supplements for the purposes of claiming the medical expense tax offset under section 159P of the ITAA 1936.