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It can feel overwhelming to provide the care and services a聽disabled family member聽needs. And unfortunately, many families overlook tax credits and deductions that could help defray the costs of that care.聽These include the medical expense deduction and the child and dependent care credit, and disabled taxpayers may take聽deductions for impairment-related work expenses.

Medical deduction

罢丑别听聽for medical expenses, including the costs of聽diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease, insurance premiums, and transportation costs to receive care. All families who have large medical expenses should consider this deduction, not just those with a disabled member.

Individuals and families need to meet a few requirements before utilizing this deduction. You聽can deduct only costs that exceed 10% of your adjusted gross income. There is no maximum amount you can deduct. But you can鈥檛聽deduct any costs paid for or reimbursed by insurance. And since you can鈥檛 also elect the聽, you鈥檒l want to determine which deduction most reduces聽your tax liability.

You can deduct medical expenses for:

• Yourself.
• Your spouse.
• Your children, as long as they鈥檙e all under age 19, or age 24 if they鈥檙e full-time students, and as long as they aren鈥檛 filing their own returns.
• Your dependents,聽that is anyone who has lived with you for the entire year, doesn鈥檛 file his or her own return, and for whom you provided at least 50% of total support.

If parents are separated or divorced, both can claim the medical deduction using the expenses they paid for the child.

The scope of allowable medical expense deductions is wide. It includes part of the costs of property modifications, such as adding wheelchair ramps or elevators to your home; treatments by chiropractors and 海角大神 Science practitioners; tuition for special schools and tutors when prescribed by physicians; diagnostic devices, such as聽blood sugar kits for diabetes; and purchasing and caring for service animals. If your doctor recommends a treatment or the disabled individual needs a service聽for daily living, it could be deductible. When in doubt, ask your tax professional.

Child and dependent care credit

This credit is designed for聽families who are paying someone to care for a child or dependent.聽, depending on your AGI, or up to聽$3,000 for one qualifying individual and $6,000 for two or more qualifying individuals.聽The expenses must be incurred to allow you and your spouse, if married filing jointly, to work or to look for work.

Families with disabled children frequently think that they don鈥檛 qualify for a child or dependent care credit because of the child鈥檚 age. But it can apply to families providing care for an聽individual with a total and permanent disability. However, there are limits, so you鈥檒l want to talk to a professional to ensure your family qualifies.

Impairment-related work expense deduction

If聽you have a disability, you might incur expenses for services that聽enable you to work, such as聽hiring a job coach or purchasing a reader if you鈥檙e visually impaired. These may be聽. That聽means they鈥檙e deductible before they聽exceed 10% of your AGI, as is required for medical expenses. They鈥檙e also treated differently from聽聽You can claim only the portion of those聽that exceed 2% of your AGI.

Say you make $50,000 per year, and have purchased $3,500 worth of specialized equipment that enables you to perform your duties. You can deduct that amount because it counts as an impairment-related work expense. If it was considered a medical expense, you wouldn鈥檛 be able to claim anything less than $5,000, or 10% of AGI. And if it was classified as a miscellaneous expense, you could claim only up to $2,500, the portion exceeding 2% of your AGI.

Note that, like medical and miscellaneous expenses, you can claim only the impairment-related work expense deduction if you itemize deductions.

Get help

It鈥檚 not a perfect system, and you won鈥檛 be reimbursed for all your costs, but properly claiming tax deductions and credits can put some money back in your pocket. Track what your doctors are prescribing聽and your聽out-of-pocket expenses. Now is a good time to revisit the year鈥檚 treatments and find out聽how they may affect your tax bill. And be sure to聽work with a professional who is familiar with disabilities, or familiarize yourself聽with the provisions in the tax code that may help.

聽is a fee-only financial planner with聽聽in Silver Spring, Md.

This article originally appeared on聽聽and also appears on聽.