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If I live in NJ and paid $6,589 (pre-tax) last year for medical benefits through payroll deductions. Does this cost qualify as nonreimbursed medical expenses?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 5, 2019
15 replies
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On the same page (in Turbo Tax) it also asks for New Jersey Medical insurance premiums included in your NJ wages but not in your federal wages on your W-2, and not deducted on your Federal Schedule A. How can I tell if this field is relevant to my situation?

TurboTax Deluxe Windows

Best answer by rjs

The $6,589 probably should go in the second box on the Medical Expenses screen in the New Jersey interview. That's the box that says "New Jersey medical insurance premiums included in your New Jersey wages but not in your federal wages on your W-2, and not deducted on Federal Schedule A." That is normally the case in New Jersey. Medical insurance premiums are pretax for federal but after tax for the state, so they can be added to the medical expense deduction on the New Jersey tax return.

If your NJ wages in box 16 of your W-2 are exactly $6,589 more than the federal wages in box 1, then the difference is surely due to the medical insurance premiums and you can enter the amount of the premiums in that second box on the TurboTax screen. If the difference between box 1 and box 16 is not exactly equal to the medical insurance premiums, ask your employer if the premiums were included in box 16 but not in box 1. If so, you can enter them in the second box on the TurboTax screen.

rjs

Employee

You can include the medical and dental insurance premiums. You cannot include the health care FSA. However, you can include medical expenses that were paid from your health care FSA. (You cannot include those expenses in the medical expenses on your federal tax return.)

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is_rg

Employee

As per NJ deductions: "You can deduct certain medical expenses that you paid during the year for yourself, your spouse or domestic partner, and your dependents. ... Insurance premiums, including amounts paid under Social Security for Medicare, can be used as medical deductions."

does that mean in addition to pretax Medical, Dental and Vision premiums, we can also deduct medicare premiums (1.45% of social security wages) from NJ taxable income?

DMarkM1

When you enter the form 1099-SSA information that includes the deduction for Medicare premiums in the Federal interview that amount transfers over to the NJ return for the medical expenses deduction automatically.

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Todd526Author

It appears that the difference between box 1 and 16 is exactly $8840 which is Medical ($6589), Dental ($251), and Health Care FSA ($2000). Can all of these expenses be included in the second box on the turbo tax screen "New Jersey medical insurance premiums included in your New Jersey wages but not in your federal wages on your W-2, and not deducted on Federal Schedule A."? Thank you.

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Todd526Author

Just so I completely understand. If I used the whole $2000 of fsa funds (which I did) to pay for medical expenses - i.e, co-pays, prescriptions, etc., then I can add it into the total for the second box?

rjs

Employee

Yes, that's right.

rjs

Employee

. . . provided that you paid the medical expenses in 2015. Some FSAs allow you to carry over some of the money to the following year. If you used some of the FSA funds in 2016, that amount would go on your 2016 tax return.

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Todd526Author

Got it. Thank you very much.

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jdevola222

Doesn't TurboTax already include the premiums as deductible, based on having entered the W2 info? (how do I know they haven't been deducted twice?)

rjs

Employee

@jdevola222 - The medical insurance premiums are not shown on the W-2. They are not included in box 1 on the W-2, but they are not listed anywhere else on the W-2. TurboTax has no way of knowing about amounts that are not included in box 1. There are other things besides medical insurance premiums that can cause a difference between box 1 and box 16, so TurboTax cannot assume that the difference is medical insurance premiums.

TurboTax does not automatically add anything to medical expenses on the NJ tax return. The amount that it initially shows for medical expenses on the NJ return is just the total medical expenses from federal Schedule A.

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jdevola222

I hate doing taxes. Thanks for the info, rjs.

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hariabishek

What if we've payed medical bills which were more than the FSA contribution? Can we add them to Nonreimbursed medical expenses Box 1 in Turbo Tax?