Has anyone built an Excel sheet for clients to list medical expenses and upload to the Medical Expense worksheet? I’m fine manually entering data, but one client has five family members with dozens of claims each.
Ideally, I’d send them a spreadsheet like the one they already use and have them complete and upload it. I saw the Excel template under “Import,” but it doesn’t match the Medical Expense worksheet layout seen below:
Just trying to get ahead of this before the next tax season.
How do you handle insurance claims? Do you add columns for claims - reimbursed and net claim? I do this for myself, but not for my clients. OTIP has the worst summaries, that’s why I track them myself.
I usually add it with a tape unless there are lot of receipts. In that case I make an Excel spreadsheet with a separate column for the reimbursements.
I just had a review where I had to show that certain expenses were not eligible. CRA denied some of the expenses because the client didn’t submit them to the provider. Nuts. 
Why would anyone submit something if they won’t get a refund?
So I asked the client to show the total reimbursements for the year from the insurance provider. In my spreadsheet the totals match the refunds from the provider. Keeping my fingers crossed.
The format doesn’t matter (to you or CRA)…what matters is the ability to determine an optimal claim period (12 months ending in the tax year) and any portion that is non-allowable or non-claimable (either not a qualified METC expenditure or was reimbursed). TC can do that optimization, but so can Excel to find a maximum amount within a period.
Yes, it’s a PITA to build. I have one kicking around somewhere, but haven’t used it in quite a while.
There is no need to enter each and every single expense in TC either…you can, if looking for a time period to claim for (this usually varies with dental expenses in my experience more than most other things) subtotal by month and force-enter in TC to get the period right. Then just select the items you want, scan ‘em and hold them for potential review.
If a lot of the claims are individual prescription receipts you can also ask your client to get an annual print out from their pharmacist. You can do this for dental too.
Just a note to this…CRA, if it reviews same, will want DINs/descriptors on all listings…a simple list of amounts and dates paid is not sufficient.
Every listing from the pharmacist I have ever seen includes the DIN and descriptors and the pharmacist’s signature. I have passed many CRA audits on medical expenses by supplying this listing. The listing from the dental office is very similar, all the ones I’ve seen include the description of the services performed and all other relevant information.
It is, in fact, our office policy that we don’t accept individual prescription receipts unless there are fewer than 10. Otherwise we require clients to get the listing from their pharmacy.
Interesting policy…I like it!!
Have had some from a Calgary pharmacy that only had dates and bucks. Surprised me.
I’ve had one or two clients give me pharmacist yearly statements showing only the total amount spent in the year and the pharmacists signature. These were with clients who had health issues and wanted confidentiality. I accepted them, however made the client aware that if CRA requested receipts in a review, that the more detailed pharmacist printout with individual DIN numbers would be required, else the expense would be denied.
I have a spreadsheet that I use to summarize medical expenses and use our total for the claim on the T1. I have set it up so I can check off claims I’ve reviewed. For Rx claims, I encourage clients to get summaries printed by the pharmacy but I bill extra for people with lot’s of Rx receipts (I bill it as compilation of their medical expense receipts). I also show them the extra amount they’re paying for that service. I also put group insurance claims in the spreadsheet to reduce the totals. It works for 90% of the clients. The other 10% have been deemed untrainable.
@rein, I’ve never heard of Proc Review denying expenses that were not submitted to the group insurance provider. That’s a new one (and one that you should be able to clear up if you get it in front of someone with common sense).
Great policy @jglass ! These receipts are a huge pain point for me as a one person firm. I like this policy established up front, along with a template for clients to enter them if there are many others not on a summary. I have a basic spreadsheet but it’s not uploadable to TC. And when I am super busy, I only enter the totals per patient. If CRA wants to review it, we will send in details at that time.
@kevin Great idea to charge extra for those untrainable clients with lots of receipts. How much do you charge?
@Rein @kevin The CRA is within their rights to deny a medical expense that was not submitted to the insurance provider under 118.2(1), namely, “that were paid.”
You have to prove that you were not reimbursed. The failure to request reimbursement isn’t proof that you were not reimbursed, nor is citing the insurance plan. You need the rejection of the claim by the insurance plan to prove that your client wasn’t reimbursed.
Submit, get the reject, then claim on the tax return.
Thanks. I was not aware of that. Good to know.
I just read 118.2(1). Why do you think that citing the insurance plan is not sufficient?
If a plan says that the insured can’t claim orthodontics for dependants, why could CRA deny the deduction if the tax payer has an invoice marked “paid” for orthodontics for their kids?
Because they do. I do reviews as the main part of my job and medical is the number one topic of review. It’s only happened twice in the 10 years I’ve been doing this, and it was the same reviewer for each one. Havent had it happen since COVID though.
Because you may have referenced an old copy of the plan. The reject is definitive.
I think that CRA is not relying on 188.2(1), but para 118.2(3), where it states:
(3) For the purposes of subsection (1),
(a) blah - not relevant
(b) there shall not be included as a medical expense of an individual any expense to the extent that the individual…{snip}
is entitled to be reimbursed for the expense, except to the extent that the amount of the reimbursement is required to be included in computing income and is not deductible in computing taxable income.
Provision of the plan document stating that there is “no entitlement” should, at law, be sufficient. From a bureaucratic perspective, CRA would not like that, because it means they have to “think” instead of having someone else (the insurer) do the work.
But I think that, at law, they’re wrong. And, several years after the fact, the insurer cannot/will not reimburse in any event, so resupplying the expenses to the insurer is likely to result in failure…but not necessarily a failure of “entitlement”…but one of “timing” LOL.
I’m looking for feedback on a workflow to streamline medical expenses.
The example is a family of five individuals with over 50 medical expense lines. Rather than entering each expense individually I would like to know whether it’s acceptable to summarize by category per person.
To clarify, one line for all dental expenses and one line for all prescription expenses. Each line would use the year-end date as the transaction date.
Although the client provides an Excel worksheet, I rely on the insurance company’s claims summary/report. I compare the amount submitted versus the amount paid - the difference (copay/ deductible) is what is claimed as the eligible medical expense.
Has anyone used this approach successfully? Are there any CRA concerns I should be aware of when summarizing by category like this?
Please see the screenshot below - this is the format I’d like the client to use when submitting their medical expenses in Excel.
Yes, of course. That worksheet in TaxCycle is just a helper sheet, which can be sent to CRA when/if they request more info. As long as you’re following the rules (i.e. dependents that have taxable income must claim their own medical expenses first - to reduce taxable income to zero; etc) you can summarize any way you want. I do the same.
I’m with Nezzer. As long as you can provide the supporting documentation you’re good. I’ve been doing it that way for many years and CRA has never had a problem with it.
