Tax deduction for childbirth medical costs?

[Rezz]

Hi all,

A quick question about the upcoming tax return. I know that any medical expenses exceeding 100,000 yen can be claimed for as a deduction, but does that include medical expenses for a dependent? More specifically, hospital costs for childbirth and subsequent check-ups/vaccinations?

My wife used her shakai hoken to receive the government 420,000 yen subsidy lump sum toward the majority of the costs, but we were left with a bill for around 160,000 yen for the remaining hospital costs during the birth (medicine, room fees, food, and so on). The child is registered as a dependent under my name. Can I submit these expenses as medical costs exceeding 100,000 yen?

Thanks!

[StockBeard]

As the head of the household I mechanically pay for all medical expenses of my dependents, and I always declare those in my deductions, so I would say yes (I go through my taxes with a company that does it for me, so I'm pretty sure this is the correct way to do this). My wife is not technically my dependent but she certainly is on my insurance (so are the kids) so I think it's fair game to consider all those expenses as mine.

What I'm not sure about is if you can claim a deduction for the birth, given that a huge portion of it is already covered by the gov lump sum? I'm pretty sure you can

[Rezz]

Thanks for the reply. I think in most cases the government subsidy of 420,000 yen covers the majority of the birth costs, but the nearest hospital to us was quite a large public city hospital which (weirdly) seems to be more expensive than the average private birthing clinic. We also ended up having to pay for a private room because there were no spaces available on the cheaper public wards. I guess I'll just submit the expenses and see what happens. If anyone else has any idea, I'd be grateful to hear!

[StockBeard]

I think in most cases the government subsidy of 420,000 yen covers the majority of the birth costs

I don't know. I feel hospitals just increased the fee so that no matter what, you end up having to pay 100'000~200'000 out of pocket. It's a vicious circle. If gov was funding 600'000, you can bet that the total cost would magically become 800'000. FWIW we also paid about 600'000 when our second kid was born, so similar situation to yours (but I don't remember what I did back then with hospital fees deductions on my tax return)

[Rezz]

I got to the bottom of this. For future reference, if anyone is wondering:

- the majority of birthing costs are eligible for the "high medical cost tax deduction" even after the government subsidy
- optional examination costs for the baby immediately after birth are also eligible (blood and hearing tests, usually around ~15,000 yen)
- taxi costs to / from the hospital are fine to include
- any excess paid for scheduled health check-ups for the child after birth can be also included (if the free coupons don't cover the full amount)

A separate form has to be filled in summarising the total costs by family member, per hospital. This is available from the e-tax site.

A few things that are not eligible and must be deducted from the total:

- room fees (this is quite a large chunk if you stay in a semi-private or private room)
- gas, parking and toll fees if you drive to / from the hospital yourself
- pajama and toiletries purchased during your stay
- vaccination costs

All in all in our case, with mine and my wife's medical costs for the year, plus our child's birthing and check-up costs, we had a total expenditure of around 170,000. Anything over 100,000 is deductible from your tax, so a minus 70,000 on my tax return. Not too shabby!

[StockBeard]

Nice!