IVF and taxes

[megstoo]

Not looking for tax advice just curious what you'd do:  

I know I'm a bit early (well not really) but I'm starting to look at my receipts for this year for taxes and we're either right at the limit or slightly under to be able to claim medical expenses on the 2018 taxes (we still are able to itemize because we own a house and I work from home so a lot of expenses).  I know it's going up in 2019 to 10% of adjusted gross.  That being said if I pay for IVF now I know that will put us over so we can claim it.  We're planning on egg retrieval end of January (hoping to start stims middle of Jan) and planning a FET around Feb.  

We are also completely OOP.  If you were in this situation would you prepay your IVF treatment to get it to hit this tax year, what would the negatives be?  A friend of mine is insisting it's a dumb idea and there's no guarantee we'll need IVF and might conceive naturally.  I've had 3 IUI's, I have PCOS and we have male factor (morp issue) so I'm about 99.9% sure the chances of it happening on it's own is zero.  

FWIW:  We live in Virginia but switched clinics to CNY which is in NY because of cost (11k versus 4k) so for sure we'll have some travel expenses (miles and hotel since we'd drive to NY for retrieval and transfer).  I also already have the majority of my meds.  

Another meds question:  I bought a friends gonal f 450iu (2 boxes) for $250 total, I'm assuming I can't claim that right?  

[seeyalater52]

I would pre-pay. How many cycles of “naturally trying” do you even have between now and when you start IVF? One? Max two? I think your friend doesn’t understand infertility. The chances you’d conceive naturally in this one cycle are infantesmal and that doesn’t happen nearly as much as seems to be implied by all the clueless people who want to tell you about a friend of a friend who got pregnant accidentally after failed treatments.

[megstoo]

Dec 5, 2018 11:58:22 GMT -5 seeyalater52 said:

I would pre-pay. How many cycles of “naturally trying” do you even have between now and when you start IVF? One? Max two? I think your friend doesn’t understand infertility. The chances you’d conceive naturally in this one cycle are infantesmal and that doesn’t happen nearly as much as seems to be implied by all the clueless people who want to tell you about a friend of a friend who got pregnant accidentally after failed treatments.

Our last IUI fail was beginning of October so while I'd like to say we've been highly trying that just isn't the case - (stress, I was sick, now DH is sick).  I didn't want to tell her she doesn't understand how infertility works because she has 3 kids of her own and never had an issue.  

[Jalapeñomel]

What are your other deductions? The standard deduction is $24,000, so if your medical expenses help get you to that, then yes, prepay.

[icedcoffee]

I would prepay if you can afford to. Even if you do conceive before then, they will refund it and you'd know that before you even file your taxes.

We were able to deduct a bunch of medical expenses for our IVF in 2016. It was nice.

[pooh8402]

I would prepay. Speaking from experience, it was a huge help to have it deducted from our taxes that year.

And no, you can't claim medications purchased from a friend. There is no receipt.

[seeyalater52]

Dec 5, 2018 12:49:21 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

I would prepay if you can afford to. Even if you do conceive before then, they will refund it and you'd know that before you even file your taxes.

We were able to deduct a bunch of medical expenses for our IVF in 2016. It was nice.

I think whether they can get a refund is very clinic specific, so megstoo you may want to check this before actually purchasing. Many clinics are non-refundable for payments.

[megstoo]

Dec 5, 2018 12:36:18 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

What are your other deductions? The standard deduction is $24,000, so if your medical expenses help get you to that, then yes, prepay.

I work from home so I have a lot of business type expenses that get claimed - anything from office supplies, to portion of utility bills are claimable.  Also since we own the interest we pay on the loan, property taxes etc.  These combined with the medical puts us over the standard deduction even before prepaying for IVF so we'll itemize again this year.  

[megstoo]

Dec 5, 2018 15:05:35 GMT -5 seeyalater52 said:

Dec 5, 2018 12:49:21 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

I would prepay if you can afford to. Even if you do conceive before then, they will refund it and you'd know that before you even file your taxes.

We were able to deduct a bunch of medical expenses for our IVF in 2016. It was nice.

I think whether they can get a refund is very clinic specific, so megstoo you may want to check this before actually purchasing. Many clinics are non-refundable for payments.

The chances of us conceiving before 2019 is slim to none.  I have a normal annual exam scheduled next week so I was going to request a blood test just to make sure and then I start BC for a month prior to starting IVF.  

[icedcoffee]

Dec 5, 2018 15:05:35 GMT -5 seeyalater52 said:

Dec 5, 2018 12:49:21 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

I would prepay if you can afford to. Even if you do conceive before then, they will refund it and you'd know that before you even file your taxes.

We were able to deduct a bunch of medical expenses for our IVF in 2016. It was nice.

I think whether they can get a refund is very clinic specific, so megstoo you may want to check this before actually purchasing. Many clinics are non-refundable for payments.

Interesting.  I'd definitely check that and I wouldn't prepay if it wasn't refundable.  The small amount you'd save by deducting would not be worth it to me.