J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2013: For Preparing Your 2012 Tax Return

17.11 Nursing Homes

Your payment for medical services, meals, and lodging to a nursing home, convalescent home, home for the aged, or sanitarium is treated as a medical expense subject to the AGI floor (17.1) if you, your spouse, or dependent is confined for medical treatment.

If obtaining medical care is not the main reason for admission, but you can show the part of the cost covering actual medical and nursing care, that amount is deductible, but not the cost of meals and lodging.

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Filing Tip

Meal Costs at a Nursing Home

If the patient entered a nursing home to receive medical care, a deduction may be taken for meals and lodging while there, in addition to medical care costs.

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Establishing medical purpose.

The following facts are helpful in establishing the full deductibility of payments to a nursing home, convalescent home, home for the aged, or sanitarium:

• The patient entered the institution on the direction or suggestion of a doctor.
• Attendance or treatment at the institution had a direct therapeutic effect on the condition suffered by the patient.
• The attendance at the institution was for a specific ailment rather than for a “general” health condition. Simply showing that the patient suffers from an ailment is not sufficient proof that he or she is in the home for treatment.

In an unusual case, a court allowed a medical expense ...