MEDICAL EXPENSES WHO CLAIMS pREMIUMS ON PRIVATE HEALTH PLAN

[mikelizryan50]

We fully pay the premiums on our Health Plan.  The plan is under my husbands name but I have the same benefits on the plan.  I see that the expense was put on my return.  Is this allowed or did I possibly make an entry error.

[TonyC11 · Accepted solution]

Typically the spouse with lower Net income should claim Medical expense credit, which includes health insurance plan premiums. 

Tax software will determine which partner the Medical expenses should be reported under, when joint preparation is being used. This gets more complex when Pension splitting is part of the tax entry.
The objective is to optimise credit. Ie to reduce the 3% deductible threshold and thereby increase the amount of credit that is available.

If you are manually deciding who should claim credit, you should first of all resolve your pension splitting in an optimal manner. Medical should be added together under the spouse with lower net Income, assuming that person has sufficient tax payable to use the credit.