Tax relief on "Special" Diabetic Foods

bravo

Sorting out my Med1 calim from the Revenue and noticed that diabetics can claim tax relief on supermarket bills for "special diabetic foods". Most diabetes advice says to avoid these foods, so what are your views or what exactly are the foods involved. Thanks in adavance.

link
http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/credits/health-expenses.html#section4

tbh

bravo wrote: »

Sorting out my Med1 calim from the Revenue and noticed that diabetics can claim tax relief on supermarket bills for "special diabetic foods". Most diabetes advice says to avoid these foods, so what are your views or what exactly are the foods involved. Thanks in adavance.

link
http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/credits/health-expenses.html#section4

wow! did not know that. Thankfully, at the moment, I can say it's probably more hassle than it's worth, but with the credit crunch biting ever harder...

robinph

I'm surprised that they bother still trying to market stuff as being special "diabetic" foods. Surely any diabetic who has had any contact with the specialist nurses in the hospitals will have been told that they are a load of rubbish and to avoid them. I suspect that the manufactures have conned some civil servant that they are actually a good idea and to get the tax back thing to try and up their sales.

Dtoffee

I'm bumping this thread in the hope that someone out there has had success in claiming tax relief on diabetic foods.

I know the fact that most diabetic food stuffs are not recommended, however my Doc has put me on a special diet that precludes many of the usual products and my shopping costs have risen as a result.

Is it worth the hassle of claiming? I cant find any info on how much the allowance is or what is considered normal.

Somebody somewhere must have some experience to share, anyone care to share their experiences. tks

locum-motion

Then link in the OP is dead, so I wonder if the tax break may have been removed?

gctest50

*from 2012 though ................

21. Diabetic patients
Diabetic patients may claim tax relief in respect of:
(a) qualifying health expenses; and
(b) the cost of food products manufactured specifically for diabetics (as such food
may be considered to be an allowable expense for the purposes of a health
expenses claim).
A letter from a doctor stating that the taxpayer is diabetic is acceptable.
If receipts are requested, such receipts are not confined to those from a chemist -receipts from supermarkets, etc., in respect of food products manufactured
specifically for diabetics are also acceptable

http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/foi/s16/income-tax-capital-gains-tax-corporation-tax/part-15/15-01-12.pdf

Dtoffee

It appears that tax relief is available but very little about how much you can claim for. I thought there may be a set allowance per annum, but it looks like you just add up your spend and tell them .... then they may or may not look for receipts.

I was hoping that there is someone out there who has actually made the claim and could tell us whether its worth the hassle. If I find out any further info, I will post it here.

Tks

Spook_ie

Cant comment re diabetic food, but one of our kids has coeliac disease and we are allowed to claim for gluten free foods for him. We are allowed to claim for any product that is specifically made for a gluten free diet, we have been claiming for a number of years and last year out of the blue we got a letter from revenue asking for evidence to support our claim. We photocopied approx 20 different receipts and asked did they want to see any more and we got another letter saying no, they were happy with what they saw, so make sure you keep your receipts !