Tax break

Well, I learned something new I didn't know, yesterday. I learned that memory care is considered a tax deductible medical expense for taxes. Huh! who knew! She is there for medical reasons (the dementia/Alzheimer's disease and for daily care) so it is considered tax deductible. She and her facility qualify.

“A chronically ill individual is one who has been certified by a licensed health care practitioner within the previous 12 months as: 1) Being unable for at least 90 days, to perform at least two activities of daily living without substantial assistance from another individual, due to the loss of functional capacity. Activities of daily living are eating, toileting, transferring, bathing, dressing, and continence or 2) Requiring substantial supervision to be protected from threats to health and safety due to severe cognitive impairment.” With the enactment of the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill, the law is now clear. Congress stated clearly that the tax code should provide equal consideration for persons with Alzheimer’s disease or other irreversible dementia. 

In another online article I read that the facility has to be a licensed care facility, which her place is. Good to know! When I file her tax return for 2023 I will be able to deduct all this cost of memory care she is paying out this year (well, the amount over 7.5% of her income). This should result in her having to pay very little, if any, state and federal taxes. For her 2022 return I just completed her federal rate was a bit over 15% and the state rate was 7%. When she takes her RMD (and extra this year) from her IRA, they have it set up to withhold 15% for federal and 7% for state and send in the tax deposit to the IRS, so next year she should get most of that back as a refund. Her tax savings per year now cover about 2 months of the memory care. 

We had a good laugh over messenger with dd last night. Her dog has the funniest shake. He plops his paw in your hand and does this cute head tilt at the same time. She sent a little video. So when she was little and we were racing with the kids, one of the things the kids always were encouraged to do after a race was over was shake hands with each other. So, here she was 5 or 6 and she had the funniest handshake. It was just this strong grip and one pump, haha. Always. I asked her last night do you still shake the same? She said "....probably..." LOL. I said no wonder your dog shakes funny - he learned from you!

DH got all his post and beams up. He will be resting today and figuring out the next lumber order for the stringers and the plywood to make the floor. I going to work on staining more hangers.

Oh geez - now my half sis just texted me again this morning. She is in CA and they are booking a whale watching tour and the tour required a US telephone # to book it, so she texted me she gave them mine, LOL. 

I'm waiting for dh to get up this morning and I'm going to make blueberry muffins for breakfast. Ok, I just heard him so off I go.