Speech therapy & supplies tax deductible?

Question

I have an autistic son and we started speech therapy.Our insurance is paying for it, but we pay the co-pay which is pretty high. Is speech therapy tax deductible?

Also, he has ABA (applied behavioral analysis) here at home, but we pay all the necessary things they need for him to work on ie. simple learning toys, laminating supplies, ink, and anything that will motivate him that will enable my son to learn. Is this tax deductible?

Thanks

Answer 1

I looked around and cannot find anything to indicate speech therapy or autism supplies would be deductible, although I am kind of surprised and disappointed that they are not.  The closest thing I could find was physical type therapy for mentally retarded (I know we are talking about different things here, I am not equating the two), but not even therapy and education for the  retarded is deductible.  In case I missed something, you may want to download this publication which lists all medical and dental expenses deductible.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf

I am sorry I couldn't find something.  I really wanted to come up with better news.

Answer 2

Speech therapy:  YES.  I thought I saw it specifically mentioned in Publication 502, but it's covered by my health insurance from my present employer, so I'm sure it's deductible.  The closest I can find is the subheading "Therapy" on page 13 of the 2007 Publication 502.

Specialized toys:  Probably not.  PERHAPS, if prescribed by a physician, and only to the extent it would be more expensive than a similar toy not designed for the specific condition.