Tax / Money / Insurance

stickybean

Hi guys,

Hope this is okay to ask here. Just heard you can claim tax back for assisted fertility treatments. Just checking if anyone has done this?

Also just learned that our health insurance will give is €1000 as a once of towards treatments.

Was really feeling concerned about how much we are about to spend. But this is softening the blow

Neyite

Yeah, I claimed back 20% of all that I could - GP, blood tests, other tests, clinic visits, consultants etc. I didnt have IVF though, just OI. It was nice to get something back.

You can register with Revenue online and just log them there. Very handy!

TomeeTipee

Hi Stickybean, yes you can claim back 20% on all medical expenses, including ivf. It definitely does help! Make sure that you keep all receipts, even small things like other prescriptions during the year, as it can all add up.

If you are claiming on your health insurance, you'll have to do that first. They will need original receipts so make sure you photocopy them to have copies for revenue. I was advised by someone when making a claim on my insurance just to send off all receipts that i thought might be covered and let them come back to me saying what was covered and what wasn't. I had been thinking of ringing them and asking, for example, if a consultation with a fertility doctor would be covered under normal consultations. I was advised by a friend not to do this as sometimes you can get talking to someone on the phone who doesn't really know and the minute they hear fertility, they tend to just say no! So i sent off the receipts (for fertility and non fertility consulations, gp visits, blood tests and a hsg test which i really didn't think would be covered) and low and behold, i got some money back for all of them!!

After you have sorted your health insurance claim, then you can claim from revenue. If for example, you paid €50 for a gp visit and your insurance paid €30 of this, you can only claim for the remaining €20. So you can't claim twice for the same stuff, thats why you need to do the insurance claim first. It is very easy to claim from revenue. You won't be able to claim for 2015 until 2016, so you'll have to wait until January at the earliest. If you use paye online, you simply go into your account and enter the total that you are claiming for against 2015 health expenses. It is very easy, you don't need to send in any receipts or give a breakdown, just enter the total amount of your claim! Usually if you make a big claim, i.e. ivf, they will come back and ask for receipts, but sometimes they do this and sometimes they don't. I have found them pretty efficient and when i claimed this year, i got a letter a week or two later asking for receipts - it was a very big claim! I sent them all off, photocopies were fine if i had submitted originals to my insurance and i also sent the statement that i got from my insurance showing how much had already been paid out. To make things easier, as i had so many different receipts, i included an itemised list showing where i got my total from and i got 20% back into my account a few days later!

I will also be making a big claim in 2016, so i've all my receipts so far for the year tucked away and i'll be looking forward to getting some money back next year!