The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has addressed the growing epidemic of obesity in the US by recognising the condition as a disease and thus offering the chance for taxpayers to claim weight loss expenses as a medical deduction.
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Since 2000, taxpayers have needed to be recommended for weight loss programmes by a doctor as part of the treatment for a specific disease in order to deduct the costs as a medical expense. With the acknowledgment of obesity as a disease that qualities for tax deduction, however, taxpayers will be able to participate in weight-loss programmes for medically valid reasons, and claims may be backdated as far as 1998.
Going to a gym or buying diet foods in a bid to “improve the taxpayer’s appearance, general health and sense of well-being” does not qualify, says the IRS. Furthermore, the medical expenses must in total be greater than 7.5% of adjusted gross income.
The non-profit American Obesity Association has welcomed the classification. Executive director Morgan Downey told Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week: “[The classification] is going to help a lot of people. Most of the services are not covered by insurance and they can be fairly expensive.”
The US federal government defines obesity in terms of the relationship between a given person’s height and mass. The rules mean that a 6ft person is obese when weighing 221 lbs, and a 5ft 5 inches is obese at 180 lbs.
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By GlobalData
