Paying for fertility treatments can be a strain on anyone's budget, especially when insurance doesn't provide full coverage. Even simple treatments such as medications can mean hundreds or thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs, while a more advanced procedure such as in-vitro fertilization costs an average of $12,400, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. The federal government doesn't provide tax credits to help offset these costs, but you can get some tax relief by claiming the costs as tax-deductible medical expenses.
Medical Expense Deduction
The federal tax code provides two basic ways to claim a tax deduction for qualified medical expenses, including fertility treatments. The first method is to list your medical expenses on Schedule A along with other itemized expenses. The main limitation to this approach is that you can only claim out-of-pocket expenses that exceed 10 percent of your adjusted gross income. If your AGI is $100,000, for example, you can only claim medical expenses that exceed $10,000. The second approach is to open a flexible spending account through your employer, or open an individual health savings account. Both types of accounts allow you to deduct 100 percent of your contributions on your tax return, as long as you spend the money for qualified medical expenses.
