Were you aware that you can get money back on your health appointments like acupuncture, psychotherapy, and occupational therapy in Ontario? At Woodward Health, we like to remind our clients that they have access to the Medical Expense Tax Credit when submitting their income tax.

The Medical Expense Tax Credit is non-refundable tax credit that helps reduce the amount of income tax that you have to pay.

Anyone who pays income tax and who has received eligible services or purchased eligible items can claim it. It applies to all expenses that you've paid out of pocket.

The eligible services will vary from one province to the next. They will only be covered in the provinces and territories where they're regulated.

The amount of the credit will depend on how much you earn and what you spent on health expenses.

Any portion of eligible services or products that have been covered by your health insurance will not count towards the credit.

We can illustrate this with an example.

Let's say you went to a $100 acupuncture appointment. Your health insurance covers 80% of that service, which works out to be $80 in this case. You end up covering the difference, which is $20. The credit will be applicable towards the $20 you spent yourself.

Say your insurance also covers 5 sessions of acupuncture per calendar year, but you went to 10 sessions. The 5 extra sessions that you fully covered are fully eligible for the credit.

Keeping track of what you've spent versus what your health insurance covered is easy with this little hack.

Submit all of your health expenses to your insurance, even when they won't reimburse you. I always encourage doing this regardless because when your group plan is being renegotiated, the services that people use most will be prioritized.

At the end of the year, in your online portal, you can generate a report of all your submitted expenses. The report will include the exact amount covered by insurance, and what you paid out of pocket.

Disclaimer: this guide is to be used for information purposes only. This post was not written by an accountant or tax lawyer. If you have any questions regarding the Medical Expense Tax Credit, please consult an accountant.