The federal government recognizes hearing loss as a medical condition, and hearing aids as medical devices, and it has made tax deductions available for hearing treatment and solutions.

What Can I Claim?

If you don’t have insurance, and had a big medical expense during the year – like purchasing new hearing aids – it may be worth your time to itemize your expenses for tax purposes. The IRS website gives specific instructions regarding eligible deductions f​or medical expenses.

Specific Deductions For Hearing Loss Include:

• Payments for your diagnosis and treatment (visits to the audiologist)

• Payments for your hearing aids

• Transportation to and from appointments related to your hearing loss

  • Bus, train, taxi or ambulance

  • Mileage, gas, tolls and parking for your own vehicle

You can also claim:

• Payments for insurance premiums you paid for policies that cover medical care

• Payment for travel and admission to a conference about a chronic disease that affects you or a family member

Check the government list of other medi​cal expenses eligible for deductions.

How Much Can I Claim?

You can deduct the amount of the total that is greater than 10 percent of your adjusted gross income (line 38 on Form 1040). For example, if your adjusted gross income is $60,000, you can deduct the cost of any allowable medical expenses that are greater than $6000. If you or your spouse are age 65 or older, the allowable deduction is 7.5 percent, or in this case, $4500.

How To Get Your Tax Deduction

There are multiple ways to file taxes in the United States, some more complicated than others. 13 percent of Americans already use the convenient 1040EZ to file their taxes. With this form, you’ll have to carefully itemize your deductions, and you’ll have to use Form​ 1040 and Sch​edule A.

Keep Your Receipts

Obviously, deducting these types of expenses means you should have tickets or receipts for all of them. If you weren’t keeping them last year, but think that itemizing your expenses could benefit you at tax time, make sure you keep them going forward, and use these deductions to your advantage next year.

Most people don’t find tax season to be very fun. But with a little knowledge about the process and a little patience with the paperwork, you can use your hearing impairment for a little extra tax break at the end of the year.