Can TP deduct medical expenses paid in 2019 for mother who died in 2017?

[jfjefts]

Mother was in nursing home in 2017 when she died. Nursing home sued daughter for unpaid bill and they settled in 2019. Is there any way for daughter to deduct this expenses, and in what year?

[George4Tacks · Accepted solution]

If deductible, they would be a deduction in the year paid.

IRC 1.213-1(a)(3)(i)

For medical expenses paid (including expenses paid for medicine and drugs) to be deductible, they must be for medical care of the taxpayer, his spouse, or a dependent of the taxpayer and not be compensated for by insurance or otherwise. Expenses paid for the medical care of a dependent, as defined in section 152 and the regulations thereunder, are deductible under this section even though the dependent has gross income equal to or in excess of the amount determined pursuant to § 1.151-2 applicable to the calendar year in which the taxable year of the taxpayer begins. Where such expenses are paid by two or more persons and the conditions of section 152(c) and the regulations thereunder are met, the medical expenses are deductible only by the person designated in the multiple support agreement filed by such persons and such deduction is limited to the amount of medical expenses paid by such person.

[itonewbie]

Yes, medical expenses are only deductible in the year paid, not the year incurred, as per the Treas. Reg. section cited by George.

For purposes of claiming the deduction, the mother does not have to be a dependent in the year the expenses are paid, only that she qualified as a dependent under §152 in the year the medical services were rendered pursuant to Treas. Reg. §1.213-1(e)(3).

Status as spouse or dependent.—In the case of medical expenses for the care of a person who is the taxpayer's spouse or dependent, the deduction under section 213 is allowable if the status of such  person as "spouse" or "dependent" of the taxpayer exists either at the time the medical services were rendered or at the time the expenses were paid.