When is a Portable Pool Tax Deductible
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There are certain situations where both the purchase and continued maintenance of a portable EZ Pool "may" be tax deductible as medical expenses. How do you determine if it will qualify as a medical expense?
According to IRS form 502, medical expenses are the costs of diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, and costs for treatments affecting any part or function of a body.
These include the costs of equipment, supplies, and diagnostic devices needed for these purposes. However, medical care expenses must be primarily to alleviate or prevent a physical or mental defect or illness.
However, they do not include expenses that are merely beneficial to general health and wellness. It is has to be for health reasons specifically. A simplifying factor to determine whether or not it may be tax deductible is to ask; “Is it Doctor Prescribed?” If you have a prescription from a doctor for water therapy, then yes, the purchase and continued maintenance may be tax deductible. Now does this mean you can go out and spend $50,000 on an in-ground swimming pool, well maybe in some tax brackets. But most of us are far from being in this tax bracket. However, a portable EZ Pool, from reallyezpools.com can qualify for a tax deduction for the following reasons; it is not considered a home improvement, and, if the whole purpose of the pool is for therapy only, then it meets the standards under IRS form number 502.
You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay for special equipment installed in a home, or for improvements, if their main purpose is medical care for you, your spouse, or your dependent. The cost of permanent improvements that increase the value of your property may be partly included as a medical expense. The cost of the improvement is reduced by the increase in the value of your property. Only the difference is a medical expense. If the value of your property is not increased by the improvement, the entire cost is included as a medical expense. Please note: actual increase in the value to your home is best determined by an appraisal.
So if swimming and other water-based exercises are prescribed as treatment or part of a doctor-recommended physical therapy, then the cost of purchasing a portable pool may be partly deductible as a medical expense. However, the IRS is likely to question the deductions because of the possibility that the pool may be used for recreation. If you can show that the pool is specially equipped to alleviate your condition and is not generally suited for recreation, then the IRS may likely allow the deduction.
Here are two examples of how an EZ Pool customer was allowed to deduct their pool purchase.
1.) The IRS allowed a deduction for a pool purchase by an osteoarthritis patient, whose physician had prescribed swimming several times a day as treatment. He purchased a portable lap pool from reallyezpools.com and had no children. He further presented video showing how he uses the pool daily as per the doctor-recommended therapy. The IRS can be leery about deductions, but a well-documented case is considered valid.
2.) Another taxpayer had a child with emphysema and purchased an EZ Pool after his doctor told him to develop an exercise regime for the child. He swam with the child in it twice a day and improved the child’s breathing capacity. The tax court allowed him to deduct the cost of the pool (to the extent the cost exceeded its added value to the property) as a medical expense because its primary purpose was for medical care. He was also allowed to deduct the pool-heating costs, pool chemicals and part of insuring the pool area.
Purchasing an EZ Pool is both affordable and easy – and if it is for doctor-prescribed medical purposes, then the government has made allowances for the purchase and associated costs to be deducted from your annual tax bill.
