Posted on Apr 12, 2017
Using VA medical, is it better for the Vet to receive travel pay from the VA or claim the travel as a medical expense on Fed taxes?
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Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Disability
Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 7
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MSgt George Cater The travel pay dollar is a dollar. A dollar in deductions is only a percent of the expense dollar based on rhe marginal tax rate - once the threshold of the deduction is reached, and assuming an itemized return versus the "standard" deduction. Good thought provoking question.
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1SG Robert J. Galloway
So true. You get nothing that way. At least you would get paid, hopefully with-in a year, and you would have something for your gas and wear and tear on your vehicle,(if you ever get paid!!!)
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MSG Thomas Currie
1SG Robert J. Galloway - I can't say about your local VA travel office, but here travel claims are paid in a few days. It rarely takes over a week from submitting the claim online to having the money direct deposited in my bank.
The BTSSS online system was ugly and often troublesome at first, but they seem to have most of the kinks worked out now. If the claim is just round-trip travel mileage from home to the VA or other medical office, it only takes a couple of minutes to select the appointment from the list, click through a few menu choices, and submit the claim.
Only problems I have seen lately have been that they occasionally failed to have an appointment in the list. You can enter appointments manually online, but I've found it better to email the travel office to let them fix it on their end.
The BTSSS online system was ugly and often troublesome at first, but they seem to have most of the kinks worked out now. If the claim is just round-trip travel mileage from home to the VA or other medical office, it only takes a couple of minutes to select the appointment from the list, click through a few menu choices, and submit the claim.
Only problems I have seen lately have been that they occasionally failed to have an appointment in the list. You can enter appointments manually online, but I've found it better to email the travel office to let them fix it on their end.
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Beneficiary Travel (BT) - Health Benefits
The Beneficiary Travel (BT) program reimburses eligible Veterans for those costs incurred while traveling to and from VA health care facilities. The BT program may also provide pre-approved transportation solutions.
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Medical doesn't count for taxes until your expenses hit a certain percentage of the adjusted gross income. That means you can spend a lot and not see any benefit on your taxes. Even if you go above AGI, you only get pennies back on the tax dollar. So I'd expect that if VA is covering most everything (same goes for Tricare) you'll never see a dent in your taxes anyways. Take the reimbursement money and run.
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MSG Thomas Currie
You can claim "unreimbursed medical expenses" on your taxes if you itemize and those expenses exceed the threshold. MSgt George Cater's question isn't really an either/or choice.
As SP5 (Join to see) pointed out, the VA travel pay is real money in your bank account, but a tax deduction is only a fraction of the amount based on your marginal tax rate. If you are paying 20% in taxes, a $1 deduction only gets you 20¢. Always take the VA reimbursement, but if you keep records (which you need to for taxes) and if your actual expenses exceed the amount the VA pays then that difference is an unreimbursed expense.
If your records show that it cost you $40 to travel for a medical appointment and the VA paid you $33 in travel pay, you still have $7 in unreimbursed medical expense.
As SP5 (Join to see) pointed out, the VA travel pay is real money in your bank account, but a tax deduction is only a fraction of the amount based on your marginal tax rate. If you are paying 20% in taxes, a $1 deduction only gets you 20¢. Always take the VA reimbursement, but if you keep records (which you need to for taxes) and if your actual expenses exceed the amount the VA pays then that difference is an unreimbursed expense.
If your records show that it cost you $40 to travel for a medical appointment and the VA paid you $33 in travel pay, you still have $7 in unreimbursed medical expense.
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