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April 11, 2025
Question

Medical Tail Insurance / Malpractice Insurance

  • April 11, 2025
  • 1 reply
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My spouse moved from one practice to another this year. To leave one practice, we had to pay, out of pocket, a sizable premium for tail insurance. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to account for this expense. He is not self employed and wasn't a partner or owner at either practice; however, this was a large, cash expense that we incurred.  I'd love help understanding where to enter this expense.

1 reply

April 11, 2025

If he was an employee, then this is not a deductible expense. 

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April 11, 2025

So, just to be clear: an employee pays out of pocket to be covered for malpractice and it is no way deductible? How is that justified when a business would be able to deduct it as an expense against income? I'm not challenging whether it's fair; I just want to understand the rationale.

April 12, 2025

That is correct.  Employee job related expenses are not tax deductible under current tax law unless you are one of the following:

This changed in 2017 with the new tax laws that went into affect back then.  Prior to that, employee job related expenses were deductible as an itemized expense for the amount that was more than 2% of your AGI and then only if you itemized. 

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