Accepted Answer

Hello jwzi,

Your father's stay in this home would be considered long term care. The cost of qualified long term care can be deducted as long as it meets the following guidelines.

Qualified long-term care services are necessary diagnostic, preventive, therapeutic, curing, treating, mitigating, rehabilitative services, and maintenance and personal care services (defined later) that are:

1. Required by a chronically ill individual, and

2. Provided pursuant to a plan of care prescribed by a licensed health care practitioner.

Chronically ill individual. An individual is chronically ill if, within the previous 12 months, a licensed health care practitioner has certified that the individual meets either of the following descriptions.

1. He or she is unable to perform at least two activities of daily living without substantial assistance from another individual for at least 90 days, due to a loss of functional capacity. Activities of daily living are eating, toileting, transferring, bathing, dressing, and continence.

2. He or she requires substantial supervision to be protected from threats to health and safety due to severe cognitive impairment.

Please refer to IRS Publication 502 under Long Term Care:

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p502/ar02.html#en_US_publink100014849

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Thank you jw

Expert:	Merlo
Pos. Feedback:	99.8 %
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Answered:	10/24/2009

Accountant

25+ years tax consulting. Specializing in returns for US citizens living abroad