Medical expense entries limited

[KennyRay]

Hello, for the tax year 2021 my partner and I submitted a number of medical expense entries. While the total dollar amount was presented to the CRA by TurboTax, many of the entries/receipt information were not and were only accounted for with a total dollar amount without the receipts showing to the CRA. Consequently we were audited by the CRA and had to send them copies of all the medical expense receipts for the total amount. When I enquired as to why we were audited, I was told by a CRA representative that it was because these receipts were not presented with our TurboTax tax return. 

Will TurboTax be making changes to the way these expenses and receipt information are presented to the CRA so that your TurboTax customers do not get audited because their submitted receipt information was not passed along with their CRA tax return?

Thank you

[TurboTaxGinette]

We are sorry this happened to you. As per the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) indicates on their website, medical receipts are not to be sent in with your tax return: "Do not send any documents with your tax return. Keep them in case the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) asks to see them later." We have enclosed the link to the CRA below.

Documents you need to support your medical expenses claim

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

[KennyRay]

Hi Ginette, Sorry but you have misunderstood the gist of my problem enquiry. As mentioned, in the 2021 tax year my partner and I amassed almost 80 medical claims, all of which were entered in our TurboTax returns. TurboTax did not detail each of the 80 claims to the CRA. It's like there is a limit to the number of detailed claims TurboTax reports and then the receipts that are left are entered as a sum with the entry "other medical expenses" . In our case that sum was more than $2,000. When the CRA saw that the bells went off and we were audited and then we were forced to send in hard copies of all of our medical expense receipts.

My question to TurboTax is "Will this be the case when I file my 2022 taxes? How can I get TurboTax to include the receipt details on ALL of my medical expenses?

Thank you  

[TurboTaxGinette]

The number of medical receipts is set in the software and the only other way to send in all your receipts are by mail to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). You can include your claim like last year and then mail in the complete list of detailed expenses and copy of your receipts to be included in your file. The CRA have changed to paperless in the past years. They no longer require receipts be sent in unless asked for. In this case they asked because of the amount of expenses which is a regular occurrence that their system flags it. Please make sure to include your social insurance number and name clearly on each sheet sent in to the CRA and indicate that you are sending this as proof of your eligible medical expenses claimed in your tax return.

NOTE: If there are more than one prescription receipt, your pharmacy will give you a receipt listing all of your prescription expenses totaled for the complete year on one receipt which is preferred by the CRA. You can also do the same for other expenses from the dentist and so on. This way this reduces how many expenses are listed as already tabulated totals.

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

[KennyRay]

Hi Ginette,    Thank you for your informative answer. Two last questions about this topic;

- Can you tell me the number of entries that the software allows for medical receipts so that I know what the receipt limit is?

- Can you please bring this limitation of entries topic to your Software Team and propose that the amount of entries be increased. I'm sure that it would be very easy to do for someone at their level of expertise. This change would greatly improve this situation for the many customers with medical issues that use TurboTax, and help prevent hundreds, if not thousands of your customers to avoid this type of audit by the CRA. 

Thank you again for helping me understand the limitations of TurboTax and clarifying the process that is involved when I have to physically send in my medical receipts because of those limitations.

[KennyRay]

Hi Ginette,

Can you please tell me what the limit is on the number of medical expense entries into TurboTax?

Thank you,

KennyRay

[TurboTaxGinette]

Thank you for your feedback, we will direct it to the appropriate team to review.

I have tested and entered 120 receipts. As the amounts can be grouped and reported into categories, this amount of entries should be satisfactory to include all possible receipts.

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

[KennyRay]

Hi Ginette,

I really appreciate your answers to my questions.

I had no problem with the amount of entries that I could enter into TurboTax and did not approach 120. Where I did have a problem was that TurboTax submitted the details of only a portion of the entries that I submitted and then lumped the rest into a lump sum with the description "other medical expenses". The sum of these entries listed as "other medical expenses" was over $2,000.00 and it was this unaccounted for sum that drew the attention of the CRA and led to me being audited.

My question is;

Can you please tell me the number of "detailed" medical expense entries that TurboTax will submit to the CRA, before they start lumping them into one sum? 

I do hope that I'm communicating clearly. Knowing this number will help me manage the way I enter these expenses into TurboTax.

Again, Thank you for your time and patience,

KennyRay

[TurboTaxGinette]

Regardless if the amounts are lump summed or not, the Canada Revenue Agency looks at the totals claimed. Everything that you have entered in your return is sent to them but their system only reads the totals. These totals are what activats an audit or not. Please see our TurboTax article included below. 

7 CRA Audit Triggers and How To Avoid Them

If more information is required, please contact our telephone support team for further assistance at 1-888-829-8608.

​​​​​​​Thank you for choosing TurboTax.