Medical Receipts

I have a client that is telling me that since her income is 0 which it is. She has no tax payable.
She has has never been able to claim medical expenses for that reason. Her minor daughter is ill and has thousands of dollars in medical receipts.
She is telling me that another family member outside of her home could used the receipts even though they don’t live together nor a being a dependent.

What I understand that the mother wants her sister to use them.

Is that even allowed the daughter doesn’t live with her aunt?

Clients almost ALWAYS tell you long stories of what they think their situation SHOULD be, or their particular ideas, wishes, dreams, or sob stories,

Just listen politely, nod in sympathy, and inform that income tax returns are not prepared according to “wants” and “wishes”, and that you will be preparing the income tax return according to LAW.

If they persist, laughingly tell them that you were not planning to spend Christmas 2022 in jail, so you will be preparing their income tax return properly and lawfully…

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If the Aunt if not your client, you have no control over what she or her tax professional chose to do.

As for your client, I sympathize that she has expenses. Interesting that she has thousands of dollars of expenses but no income. My First question is how would one pay for these expenses? Are they getting subsidized through some govt or community agency? If so, she may not be out of pocket thousands.

The purpose of filing a tax return is not to incur a refund. We file a tax return to report our income, we are allowed to apply allowable deductions to reduce tax payable which could produce a refund if we have paid monies in. The tax return filing also allows us to partake in various social benefit programs such as Child Benefits, OAS, GST, CWB, etc.

I concur with previous post… be respectful and listen and explain you have to follow the rules. What one feels they should be entitled to and what they are entitled to are often very different.

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Very well said. It always amazes me the things folks “want” to be done compared to what the rules are.

Pat Gamborg

PAT’s OFFICE

1354 Fed Road

Bear River NS B0S 1B0

902-467-3358

Hold on a minute… did this other family member actually pay for the medical expenses? We can’t just trade tax credits because we want to. There are rules in place for a reason. Even if they were living in the same residence, she has no business taking the credit if she’s not paying the bills.

Sounds like somebody missed the class on medical expenses. If anyone can claim medical expenses, maybe I should gather medical expenses from all my clients into one big claim, and hold a draw to see who will be the lucky client who gets to claim them. The issue is not who paid the bills, it’s the relationship between the patient and the claimant. The rules are really quite simple.

Correct the other family member did NOT pay for the expenses. I am in agreement with you all and that no other member outside the home can use them.

Tim Boufford
Boufford Tax Preparation
226-346-1158 (cell)
timboufford@cogeco.ca