Health Care

Depending on the state location and the facility the average cost of a nursing home stay is between $138 and $229 a day or between $50,000 and $83,000 a year. In major metropolitan areas like New York and California it runs much higher. The average stay in a nursing home is 19 months.

Household employees include baby sitters, nannies, housekeepers, drivers, caretakers, health aids, private nurses, maids, gardeners, and others who work in or around your private residence as your employees.
Household workers who are under age 18 during any part of the calendar year are exempt from the FICA tax for the entire year even if the wages exceed $1,800 if the household employment is not their principal occupation.
A full time student is considered a full time occupation. Workers you get from an agency are not your employees if the agency is responsible for who does the work and how it is done.
Self-employed workers are not considered your employees. In the current year, if you paid a household employee cash wages of $1,800 or more in a calendar year, you generally must withhold social security and Medicare taxes from all cash wages you pay to that employee.
Household employers must file IRS Schedule H to pay the social security and federal unemployment tax and any withheld federal income taxes. A household employer is not required to withhold federal income tax from a household employee's wages. Federal income tax withholding occurs if the employee requests and the employer agree.

Generally, you may deduct qualified medical expenses you pay for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents, including a person you claim as a dependent under a Multiple Support Agreement.
You can also deduct medical expenses you paid for someone who would have qualified as your dependent except that the person did not meet the gross income or joint return test.
Nursing home expenses are allowable as medical expenses in certain instances. If you, your spouse, or your dependent is in a nursing home or home for the aged, and the primary reason for being there is for medical care, the entire cost, including meals and lodging, is a medical expense deductible on IRS Schedule A subject to the 10% / 7.5% AGI limitation.
If the individual is in the home mainly for personal reasons, then only the cost of the actual medical care is a medical expense, and the cost of the meals and lodging is not deductible. Speak to your local CPA about the deductibility of the nursing home.

Generally, you must report as income any amount you receive for your disability through an accident or health insurance plan paid for by your employer. If both you and your employer pay for the plan, only the amount you receive for your disability that is due to your employer's payments should be reported as income. If you pay the entire cost of a health or accident insurance plan do not include any amounts you receive for your disability as income on your income tax return. If you pay the premiums of a health or accident insurance plan through a cafeteria plan, and the amount of the premium was not included as taxable income to you then the premiums are considered paid by your employer.

The cost of the medical physical that your boss said you must have is deductible as an miscellaneous itemized deduction on IRS Schedule A subject to the 2% MAGI limitation.

Non-prescription medicines (over the counter), such as nicotine gum and certain nicotine patches, are not deductible.
Deductible medical expenses do include unreimbursed amounts you paid to participate in a program to stop smoking or for prescription medicines to alleviate nicotine withdrawal.

The costs you pay to your podiatrist can be deductible as a medical deduction on IRS Schedule A subject to the 10% / 7.5% MAGI limitation.

The additional costs of special food or diets over the costs of normal food are deductible if prescribed by a doctor to alleviate a specific medical condition.
The excess can be claimed as a medical itemized deduction on IRS Schedule A subject to the 10% / 7.5% limitation.

The excess of the costs of the braille books over the regular printed editions you buy for your visually impaired son are deductible as a medical itemized deduction on IRS Schedule A subject to the 10% / 7.5% limitation.