Anyone notice in TurboTax Online, the Medical expense Claim Period does not work?

[WallyZ]

When a Claim Period spans across the previous year,  medical expenses are not included and no deduction is calculated. The example in TurboTax Help indicates an example period of:
Sep15, 2021 to Sep 14, 2022   but that does not work.  No error, just does not add the expenses as a deduction

[TurboTaxSusan]

Please make sure that the claim period that you've entered includes the dates of your medical expenses. If the 12-month period is not one that includes the dates of your medical expenses, then the credit won’t calculate. Ex: If you entered one expense on Dec 21, 2022, but your claim period ends Dec 1, 2022, the credit will not calculate because you have no receipts for that period.

If you need more help with this issue, please contact our phone support team at 1-888-829-8608.

[WallyZ]

@TurboTaxSusan I'm using the TurboTax "Online" version.  There is no provision to enter a date for each medical expense.  I called TurboTax Support and the Customer Care Agent did a remote session to my PC and and saw the issue.  She called the next level of Support and they said just enter dates 01/01/2022 to 31/12/2022.  But I don't want to claim my last large expense incurred in 2022, I want to claim it next year (2023) .  So the dates I enter are 16/08/2021 to 15/08/2022.  That does not work, no error message it just does not add the expenses to the tax return.  When you click on "Claim Period" it pops up a TurboTax Help screen which explains how to use the claim period and  shows an example of Sep 15, 2021 to Sep 14, 2022.   So I tried those example dates and it does not work.  I asked if the next level of support could do a remote session to my PC, they refused and basically insisted it does not work, I must add the full year.   To me it clearly is a bug.  The TurboTax Case Number is [phone number removed], they marked it as resolved but it is not resolved.   

I ended up using the full year period 01/01/2022 to 31/12/2022 and submitted my return without claiming my last large expense.   But I will have the same issue next year if they don't fix it.

[WallyZ]

Hi. I'm not sure I replied correctly so I replying directly to TurboTaxSusan.   I live in Canada, using TurboTax Online  Deluxe version.

I'm using the TurboTax "Online" version.  There is no provision to enter a date for each medical expense.  I called TurboTax Support and the Customer Care Agent did a remote session to my PC and and saw the issue.  She called the next level of Support and they said just enter dates 01/01/2022 to 31/12/2022.  But I don't want to claim my last large expense incurred in 2022, I want to claim it next year (2023) .  So the dates I enter are 16/08/2021 to 15/08/2022.  That does not work, no error message it just does not add the expenses to the tax return.  When you click on "Claim Period" it pops up a TurboTax Help screen which explains how to use the claim period and  shows an example of Sep 15, 2021 to Sep 14, 2022.   So I tried those example dates and it does not work.  I asked if the next level of support could do a remote session to my PC, they refused and basically insisted it does not work, I must add the full year.   To me it clearly is a bug.  The TurboTax Case  [phone number removed]) , they marked it as resolved but it is not resolved.   

I ended up using the full year period 01/01/2022 to 31/12/2022 and submitted my return without claiming my last large expense.   But I will have the same issue next year if they don't fix it.

[TurboTaxSusan]

In TurboTax Online, if you only check off “Medical receipts - 2022”, then it doesn’t ask for dates on your receipts because it assumes that all your receipts will be for 2022. Therefore, your claim period *must* be the 2022 calendar year. 

You will only be asked for dates if you also checked off “Medical receipts - 2021 (Unclaimed receipts only)”.

So, the real problem is that TurboTax should not allow you to change the claim period unless you have entered amounts from the previous year. If you change it without having dates on the receipts, it has no idea which expenses are within the time frame chosen. 

I will let the developers know about this issue. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

[WallyZ]

Thanks for the prompt reply.  

There is no way to enter dates for medical expenses in the online TurboTax .  Entering a Claim Period covers all expenses within that period so dates for each expense is not required as I understand and it makes sense to me.  CRA says to keep all receipts because they may ask for them later.

I did try checking off 2021 before calling support.  It does ask for dates, I enter my dates 16/08/2021 to 15/08/2022 but it does not work.  Even tried the example shown in the TurboTax Help screen, it  does not work.   I also tried checking off both 2021 and 2022 and that also does not work.  Finally I called support.

Thanks very much for reporting this issue to the developers.  I wanted support to report the issue, I knew it's a bug.  I requested second level TurboTax support do a remote session to my PC to show them the issue.  They refused,  told me I had to add the full year 2022 as the Claim Period,  marked my support case as resolved and closed the case.

[TurboTaxBrenda1]

Sorry to hear that your support with the phone support team was less than optimal. 

Here are the screenshots of how to enter your medical expenses. 

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

[WallyZ]

Thanks for responding and for the screen shots.   I'm not sure you saw my previous posts regarding this issue where I mentioned that I tried essentially what your screen shots show and that did not work for me.  i.e.  I selected both 2021 and 2022 , got prompted for the claim period, entered the same dates shown in your screen shots and the result was my expenses were not added to the return.   I gave up, ended up just using a claim period of 01/01/2022 to 31/12/2022 but I did not include my last expense   which I want to claim next year in 2023.    

Thanks again

[WallyZ]

I noticed after a closer look at your screen shots that is seems you are using a different version of TurboTax, the Self Employed version I believe.  I use the Online,  "Deluxe"  version.  In the Online version medical expenses are entered before the prompt for the Claim Period and there is no way to enter a date for each expense.     After entering expenses you are prompted for the Medical Profile.  I selected both 2021 and 2022 then  get prompted for the Claim Period.  I entered my  claim period (16/08/2021 - 15/08/2022)  it does not work, expensed were not added to the return.  I tried the dates shown in the TurboTax Help screen (16/08/2021 - 15/08/2022)  also does not work.  Another Community Admin has reported the issue to developers.  

Thanks for all the helpful responses from  the Community  (TurboTax Support was not as helpful)

[skettley]

I'm running into issues, too. When I input all the medical expenses I wanted to claim, I could see my return as $600, but when I added in the period for claiming the expenses (including a couple months in 2022), it dropped to $400. I continued on but later thought that maybe the issue was that by choosing a date in 2022, I was not able to claim the premium for those months because I would have claimed that for 2022. I thought I would go back and optimize the claim by changing the claim period, but the software won't allow me to do that.  The expert from Turbo tax tried everything to help me go back and edit the date range but couldn't do it and suggested I restart my tax return. Arggghh