Weightloss for Obese = Tax Deductions?

I ran across an article on CBS News about how if you are obese and a doctor tells you that you need to diet, you can write up to 7% of your yearly income off on your Taxes. Now I know this is an older article, but I just thought I'd make everyone aware. Save your receipts!

IRS OKs Weight Loss Tax Deduction

From the article:

Q: What kind of treatment expense is deductible?
A: It includes bariatric surgery, FDA-approved weight-loss drugs, physician and hospital-based programs, behavioral counseling, dietitians and nutritionists, as well as some commercial programs such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig.

Q: What expenses cannot be deducted?
A: Health club dues, nutritional supplements, over-the-counter products, diet foods and exercise equipment.

I also wanted to bring up another point: Anyone else upset that going about it the natural way by eating healthy foods, and exercise, is not deductible? Its a touchy subject for me so I won't rant too much :)

Hi 17star17 i'm glad you put that little paragraph at the bottom. It's really annoying that they do not allow exercise equipment to be deducted, it's actually really sad to see that they only pay for the most sever measures someone could take to loose weight and not the healthy things.

Oh well I guess it's better than nothing.

Ya it is better than nothing so to speak. But in my case, I don't have a doctor. Even though I was told to have hyper tension and that I needed medication, I don't have that document. It was probably thrown out like yesterdays trash from that clinic. You don't think about these kinda things at the times the doctor talks to you about it.

I mean, this I can rant about all day. I lose weight the natural way, and my re constructive surgery wont be covered by insurance. You get bariatric surgery and all of a sudden excess skin removal surgery is covered. UGH!

Alli is covered as a tax deduction, but my willpower is not.

Thanks Uncle Sam.

Just another flawed system if you ask me.

BUT this wasn't necessarily posted for me to rant, it was more posted so I could inform those looking into the surgery and other weight loss remedies to save their documents for tax purposes. Always lookin out ;) 

Just an FYI,   The IRS does not let you write 7% off your yearly income for this.  You have misquoted them,  it's so confusing it's no wonder.   Medical Expenses can be deducted IF and that is a big IF they are more than 7.5% of your Gross Anual Income.  From the article: "For example, a person with an adjusted gross income of $50,000 would only be able to deduct medical expenses exceeding $3,750."    That means you have to eat the first $3,750.00 and you can deduct what ever is over that.   And you are just deducting that from your income that you have to pay taxes on, so you only really get a savings of 25% or less of what your expenses are.    So only people who spent a lot of their own money for these procedures will get any tax benefits.    So don't feel bad.

I don't feel bad that I wont get a tax cut. The main purpose of posting it was to inform those that are having the surgery or are taking supplements to document it so they can potentially benefit from it. I do apologize for that misquote. By no means am I saying it's a bad thing, I just wish there was more ways that I could get a deduction for my dedication. :) I was just ranting.