J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2013: For Preparing Your 2012 Tax Return

17.14 Costs Deductible as Business Expenses

In some cases, expenses may be deductible as business expenses rather than as medical expenses. Claiming a business deduction is preferable because the deduction is not subject to the adjusted gross income floor (17.1). However, the cost of a checkup required by your employer is a miscellaneous job expense subject to the 2% of adjusted gross income floor (19.3).

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Filing Tip

Disability-Related Job Costs

If you are disabled and incur costs to enable you to work, the payments may be treated as a deductible business expense rather than as a medical expense.

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EXAMPLE

An airline pilot is required by his company to take a semi-annual physical exam at his own expense. If he fails to produce a resultant certificate of good health, he is subject to discharge. The cost of such checkups certifying physical fitness for a job is an ordinary and necessary business expense but the deduction is subject to the 2% floor for miscellaneous itemized deductions (19.3). If the doctor prescribes a treatment or further examinations to maintain the pilot’s physical condition, the cost of these subsequent treatments or examinations may be deducted only as medical expenses, even though they are needed to maintain the physical standards required by the job. Thus, a professional singer who consults a throat specialist ...