Line 330 - Medical expenses

You can claim medical expenses you or your spouse paid for any of the following persons:

• yourself;
• your spouse;
• your or your spouse's child or grandchild who depended on you for support; and
• your or your spouse's parent, grandparent, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, niece, or nephew who lived in Canada at any time in the year and depended on you for support.

You can claim medical expenses paid in any 12-month period ending in 1999 and not claimed in 1998. Generally, you can claim all amounts paid, even if they were not paid in Canada. Your total expenses have to be more than either $1,614 or 3% of your net income (line 236) whichever is less.

Notes
If you claim medical expenses for a dependant (other than your spouse) whose net income is more than $7,044, you have to reduce your claim. See line 331 for details.

In addition, there is a refundable tax credit for working individuals with low incomes and high medical expenses. See line 452 for details.

For more information on medical expenses, get Interpretation Bulletin IT-519, Medical Expense and Disability Tax Credits and Attendant Care Expense Deduction.

Allowable medical expenses

The most common medical expenses you can claim are:

• payments to a doctor, dentist, nurse, or public or licensed private hospital;
• payments for artificial limbs, wheelchairs, crutches, hearing aids, prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses, dentures, pacemakers, prescription drugs, and certain prescription medical devices;
• amounts paid for attendant care, or care in an establishment (see "Options" in the guide called Information Concerning People with Disabilities);
• expenses for guide and hearing-ear dogs; and
• premiums paid under the Quebec Medical Insurance Plan, and premiums paid to private health services plans (other than those paid by an employer).

Under proposed changes, you can claim amounts paid for the following:

• If you paid fees to a group home in Canada for individuals who qualify for the disability amount (line 316) the part of those fees paid to someone to care for or supervise such an individual, if nobody has claimed it as an attendant- or institutional-care medical expense on line 330, a child care expense on line 214, or an attendant care expense on line 215 for that person.
• Therapy provided for a person who qualifies for the disability amount (line 316) by someone who is neither under 18 nor your spouse. This does not include amounts paid to a medical practitioner, such as a qualified therapist, because these amounts are already allowable as medical expenses. The therapy has to be prescribed and supervised by a doctor, a psychologist (in the case of a mental disability), or an occupational therapist (in the case of a physical disability).
• Tutoring that a medical practitioner certifies as necessary because of a person's learning disability or mental impairment, by someone who is in the business of providing such services to the public.
• "Talking textbooks" prescribed by a medical practitioner for someone who has a perceptual disability and is enrolled in an educational institution in Canada.

For more examples of allowable medical expenses, call our T.I.P.S. (Info-Tax) service. See the T.I.P.S. information on the back cover.

Travel expenses - If medical treatment is not available locally, you may be able to claim the cost of travelling to get the treatment somewhere else.

You now have an option to simplify the calculation of this amount. For more information, call our T.I.P.S. (Info-Tax) service. See the T.I.P.S. information on the back cover.

Reimbursement of an allowable expense - You cannot claim the part of an expense for which you have been or can be reimbursed. However, you can claim all of the expense if the reimbursement is included in your income, such as a benefit shown on a T4 slip, and you did not deduct the reimbursement anywhere else on your return.

Example
Guy was in the hospital while on a business trip to Mexico. He paid $2,800 in Canadian dollars for allowable medical expenses, which are generally not limited to those paid in Canada. He was reimbursed for $1,500 of these expenses by his employer's health care plan. This was included on his T4 slip. Therefore, Guy can claim the full $2,800.

How to claim

Calculate your claim as follows:

• Choose the 12-month period ending in 1999 for which you will claim medical expenses. You cannot include any expenses you deducted on your 1998 return.
• Add up your allowable medical expenses for that period, and enter the total on line 330.
• Subtract $1,614 or 3% of your net income (line 236) whichever is less.
• Compare the result with the amount your spouse would be allowed. It may be better for the spouse with the lower income to claim the allowable medical expenses. You can make whichever claim you prefer.

Receipts - Attach your receipts and other documents (other than your health services plan premium receipts) to your paper return. Receipts for attendant care or therapy paid to an individual should show the individual's name and social insurance number. If you are using EFILE (see page 7) show all your receipts to your EFILE service provider, and keep them in case we ask to see them.

For claims where a properly completed and certified Form T2201 is required, also attach it, unless a disability amount was allowed for the person in a previous year and the person still met the eligibility requirements in 1999.

The following example shows how to calculate your claim.

Example
Carol and her husband have reviewed their medical bills and decided that the 12-month period ending in 1999 for which they will calculate their claim is July 1, 1998, through June 30, 1999. The total of their allowable expenses for that period is $1,842, which Carol enters on line 330.

Her net income on line 236 of her return is $32,000. She calculates 3% of that amount as $960. Because the result is less than $1,614, she enters $960 on the line below line 330, and subtracts it from $1,842. The difference is $882, which is the amount she enters on line 332.

Carol's husband's net income is $48,000. When they calculate the amount that he would be allowed if he made the claim instead, they find that he would be allowed only $402. In this case, they have found that it is better for Carol to claim the expenses.

Line 331 - Medical expenses adjustment

If you claimed medical expenses for a dependant, other than your spouse, whose net income was more than $7,044, you have to reduce your medical expenses by making the following adjustment:

• Subtract $7,044 from the dependant's net income (line 236 of his or her return) or the amount that it would be if he or she filed a return.
• Multiply the result by 4.
• Complete this calculation for each such dependant.
• Enter on line 331 of your return the total of the amounts you calculated.

Tax Tip
If the medical expenses adjustment you calculate for a dependant is more than the medical expenses you claimed for that dependant, it is not to your benefit to claim the medical expenses for that dependant.

Line 335

If the amount on line 335 equals, or is more than, the amount on line 260, and is less than $29,591, enter "0" on line 420, and complete the rest of your return. In any other case, see line 338.

Line 338

To calculate your non-refundable tax credits, multiply the amount on line 335 by 17%. If you are not claiming charitable donations or cultural or ecological gifts, enter the amount from line 338 on line 350 and go to "Federal tax calculation" on page 34.

Line 349 - Donations and gifts

You can claim donations made by either you or your spouse. Enter your claim from the calculation on Schedule 9 and attach it to your paper return. For more information, or if you made any of the following donations, see the pamphlet called Gifts and Income Tax:

• gifts of property other than cash;
• gifts to organizations outside Canada; or
• gifts to Canada, a province, or a territory made before February 19, 1997, or agreed to in writing before then if they were made after February 18, 1997.

Notes
These gifts do not include contributions to political parties. If you contributed to a federal political party, see lines 409 and 410 to find out about claiming a credit. If you contributed to a provincial or territorial political party, see the provincial or territorial forms in your forms book to find out about claiming a credit.

Gifts to Canada include monetary gifts made directly to the federal Debt Servicing and Reduction Account. If you made such a gift, which will be used only to service the public debt, you should have received a tax receipt. To make a gift to this account, which should be made payable to the Receiver General, send it, along with a note asking that we apply it to this account, to: Place du Portage, Phase III, 11 Laurier Street, Hull QC K1A 0S5.

Receipts - Attach to your paper return your official receipts, showing either your name or your spouse's name. You do not have to attach receipts for amounts shown in box 46 of your T4 or T4A slips, in box 36 of your T3 slips, in box 34 of your T5013 slips, or on financial statements showing an amount a partnership allocated to you. If you are using EFILE (see page 7) show your documents to your EFILE service provider, and keep them in case we ask to see them.

You may have included with a previous return a receipt for a donation you are claiming for 1999. If so, attach a note indicating the return with which you submitted the receipt.

We will not accept as proof of payment cancelled cheques, credit card slips, pledge forms, or stubs. If you need more details, get Interpretation Bulletin IT-110, Gifts and Official Donation Receipts.

Allowable charitable donations and government gifts (line 340)

Add up all of the donations made in 1999 plus any donations made in any of the previous five years that have not been claimed before. This includes unclaimed gifts to Canada, a province, or a territory made after February 18, 1997, other than those agreed to in writing before February 19, 1997.

Generally, you can claim all or part of this amount, up to the limit of 75% of your net income (line 236). For the year a person dies and the year before that, this limit is 100% of the person's net income.

Note
If you have taken a vow of perpetual poverty as a member of a religious order, this limit does not apply. Claim your donations on line 256 of your return.

Tax Tip
You do not have to claim on your 1999 return the donations you made in 1999. Your credit is 17% of the first $200 of the donations and gifts you claim, and 29% of the balance. Therefore, it may be more beneficial for you not to claim them for 1999, but to carry them forward and claim them on your return for one of the next five years. Remember to claim them only once.

Qualified donees

Generally, you can claim only amounts you gave to Canadian registered charities and other qualified donees. For a list of the types of donees that qualify, get the pamphlet called Gifts and Income Tax, or call our T.I.P.S. (Info-Tax) service. See the T.I.P.S. information on the back cover.

Cultural and ecological gifts (line 342)

Unlike other donations, your claim for these types of gifts is not limited to a percentage of net income. You can choose the part you want to claim in 1999, and carry forward any unused part for up to five years. For information about the kinds of property to claim, see the pamphlet called Gifts and Income Tax.