S E health insurance deduction on page 1 of 1040

[grandmabee]

My local tax assocaition group is having a debate on the deductabilty of Medicare Part B premium can be included as health insurance premium for the deduction. the instruction for the 1040 says yes but I found a IRS chief cousel's office advice in 1995 saying no.

can I have your thoughts? What are you doing?

thanks,

[TAXBILLY]

Medicare premiums are considered medical insurance for self employed purposes.

http://www.irs.gov/p...-wd/0524001.pdf

taxbilly

[grandmabee]

Medicare premiums are considered medical insurance for self employed purposes.

http://www.irs.gov/p...-wd/0524001.pdf

taxbilly

Link does not work.. but I looked on IRS site pub 535 page 18 middle of the page and it says it is not deductable for purposes of self employed health insurace deduction

[Lynn EA USTCP in Louisiana]

Link does not work.. but I looked on IRS site pub 535 page 18 middle of the page and it says it is not deductable for purposes of self employed health insurance deduction

From the NAEA Webboard - for 2010 the IRS apparently has reversed its position on this issue, as follows from a discussion begun by another EA:

The following is the response received from the IRS:

"Thank you for your inquiry dated 01/18/2011, I apologize for the delay in responding to your question. There was a change for 2010 allowing Medicare Part B Premiums to be used to figure the Self-Employed health insurance deduction. In previous years, Medicare Part D payments were allowed, but not Part B payments. As you mentioned, the 1040 Instructions do state that you can use Part B payments in calculating the deduction for 2010."

Lynn Jacobs, EA

Kenner, La

[TAXBILLY]

Sorry for the broken link:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-wd/0524001.pdf

taxbilly

[clay]

So if you retired from say a state govt job that provides health insurance at no cost to you in retirement , you can still take the Medicare Part B premium when you reach 65?

[TAXBILLY]

Yes.

taxbilly