14 replies to this topic

[EMJ]

Hi Everyone,

I did an IVF cycle in Prague back in October and am now trying to get all of my receipts ready to claim on my income tax return. I have a couple of questions for those of you who also had out of country treatment:

1. When it comes to claiming my airfare, is it as easy as submitting the receipt for the purchased airline tickets?

2. The receipt I received from the clinic is in Euros. Can I just use the conversion rate from my MasterCard statement and submit that amount?

I'm hoping to avoid an audit Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

[ociwoman]

Hi EmmaJ,

I did a few donor egg cycles overseas, so can share my experience with CRA/taxes with you.

First of all, you do not need to submit any receipts for medical expenses with your return. CRA will initially process your return and grant you the tax deduction without question. Then in the fall, the CRA MAY send you a letter advising you that your medical expense claim is being reviewed (not audited, that's far more invasive), so they would like you to submit your actual receipts to substantiate the claim. CRA does not review everyone who submits medical expenses, so you may not get the request for receipts.

If you do get reviewed, they will ask you for actual receipts. Since you are making a claim for travel expenses to obtain medical care, they will ask you for a letter from your doctor justifying why you could not access your treatment near your home. If you used an egg donor, for example, your doctor would have to indicate that you could not find an altruistic egg donor in Canada, so you needed to go abroad. Otherwise, the CRA will disallow the travel expenses.

Additionally, if your partner travelled with you, they will want justification for that from your doctor (e.g., partner needed to provide sperm and/or needed to care for you during treatment).

If you can justify the medical need to travel (more and more doctors are being asked for these types of letters for CRA, so hopefully your doc will assist you), then your receipt for the airfare showing that it was paid in full will be easily accepted by CRA. For the ivf fees, CRA wants to see the following on the receipt: name of the hospital/or medical clinic, name of doctor who performed the treatment, type of treatment, date of treatment, and amount paid by you or your partner for the treatment. Submit your Visa receipt to substantiate the currency conversion.

It seems like a lot to do, but it definitely pays off in the end. Don't forget, you can also claim the costs of travel that you may have incurred here in Canada in order to get to Prague, e.g., cost of taxi or car mileage to get to the airport, airport parking fees, meals on the day of travel. If you kept the receipts, you can also claim transportation costs from the airport in Prague to your hotel (and back), plus any costs to get to and from the clinic while in Prague.

We submitted everything CRA asked for and the full claim was allowed.

I hope it goes as smoothly for you.

P.S. If you went abroad to do a cycle with your own eggs and used your partner's sperm, then CRA will not allow any of the travel/accommodation expenses, but they should still allow the treatment costs. (That's assuming, of course that there wasn't any other medical reason to travel abroad like specialised immune treatments or something not available closer to home.

Good luck!

[JayMac]

Hello,

I just noticed these posts today and coincidentally have been trying to organize receipts to give to  the accountant today as well. I travelled to the states for DE IVF and received two separate receipts from my clinic, one for the actual IVF treatment and another one for the donor expenses. Can I submit the donor expense receipt even though it is different legislation in Canada vs. the States for using donor eggs?

 

I didn't realize that we could submit travel expenses as well. We drove to the clinic in the states and stayed nearby at my sister's house so our travel expenses were actually not that much.

[ociwoman]

Hi JayMac,

You can claim mileage for your travel from your home to your clinic and back. Check on the CRA website for the kilometric rate for your province. On one trip, we drove from Gatineau to Pearson airport, so we got a nice deduction for that alone. You do not need a receipt for the mileage expense, just show them how you arrived at the amount for mileage. You can also claim meals for each day you were on travel status. If you choose the fixed allowable meal rate ($51.00 per day per person), then no receipt is required.

The donor's expenses are a little murky. Personally, I think that medical expenses that were incurred by your donor are part of your treatment costs. I am not certain whether CRA will allow any non-medical expenses incurred by your donor (e.g., child care costs, or lost wages). I am also not certain whether CRA will allow a claim for any fee paid for the donor's eggs (if any), given that the fee is not a medical expense in the traditional sense, and given thatvour legislation doesn't permit such payments.

This is no harm in either calling the CRA to inquire, or just submitting the receipts for the donor's expenses IF or when the CRA reviews your claims and asks for the receipts. They can decide then whether they will allow it.

Hope this helps.

[EMJ]

Thanks ociwoman. That sounds pretty straightforward. I will add up my total expenses and keep my receipts handy. I appreciate the advice.

[JayMac]

Thanks so much for the info! I hope to have it organized tonight!

[breezyboo]

We wrote everything off successfully for our IVF in Barbados!

[Hopeful Cdn]

Hello,

 

I have come across this site again after searching for income tax advice re the IVF.  I have gathered all the pertinent documents and receipts for travel, the IVF itself, hotel rooms, including copies of XE.com exchange rate the day we paid etc. The problem I am having is the doctors note. SInce I am on the cusp of leaving the military (but still in as of now) I can not use the military doctors. They are not allowed to write letters of any kind to maintain impartiality. In Halifax NS there is a serious lack of family doctors, so many people myself included are left without one when I retire. There is a LOOOOONG wait list. So that leaves only walk in clinics. I was told at walk in clinics (I've tried two and one was part of a chain of clinics that encompass most of the ones here) that since I am 'not their patient' they can't write anything especially since they don't know any of the history etc. Walk in clinics are not for that type of thing. So what can I do? I CAN get the doctor from Inida where we had it done, write a letter. I even tried at the IVF clinic in Halifax, and they won't write anything either unless I sign on as their patient (which also requires signing on for some treatment like IUI or some other thing). So just wondering what can I do? I have all the receipts etc but don't think I can get a doctors letter until (if) I can get a family doctor. And then will they write something since they weren't my doctor when the IVF was done? (as a side note it may be 2+ years before I can get a family doctor anyway). 

[quandry]

Ask civilian friends who their dr is, and if they have a good relationship, ask the if they'd speak to the dr and see if they could help. Otherwise, find maybe a retired dr, or go online and find Drs for pay. No idea. Sorry.

[mouse]

Q's given good advice, both above and on your earlier post https://ivf.ca/forums...s/#entry2176361

[Hopeful Cdn]

Q's given good advice, both above and on your earlier post https://ivf.ca/forums...s/#entry2176361

 

There are no 'doctors for pay' here aside from the IVF clinic which as I said wont help unless I sign on with them for another treatment. 

 

The walk in clinics charge 80.00 for people who are not NS residents and don't have a health card. But again, they won't do something like this as walk in clinics are more for an acute infection or something that needs a prescription. They told me straight out, whether I give them my health card or pay the 80.00 they can't write a letter as they don't know my history. I tried the private run chain of clinics (family focus) and also the NS run one (Dartmouth medical centre).  Should I just not bother trying to claim this? How much will I lose out on for about 10K total costs if I don't bother with it?

[quandry]

They reimburse about 20% or so. So it's really up to you. I'd include it, and get a letter from the dr in India and see if that suffices. It might work. It depends on the reviewer you get. Also if you are friends with any of the military Drs, maybe they can refer you to someone who can help. We were close with several of the Drs on a few postings but my ex was an officer.

[Tulipan]

We went abroad for egg donation, we are yet to be successful though.

 

We have claimed all our expenses, just like listed above. Our Canadian fertility doctor asked us to write the letter for tax purposes and he will sign it.

 

Would you have a template for such letter or would you know what must be included in the letter? Do we need to specify dates when we traveled abroad or is it enough to say that due to Canadian law this and this person had to traveled to abroad for their treatment?

[s00n]

I would have your Dr from India write it, and have your supervisor/superior write a note - or just give you the policy document - that states your military care dr can't write you a note. Together these should be adequate, and if they are not contact CBC who may wish to do a human interest story on your subject.

[ticktock]

HI all

I am planning to go to South Africa in June for IVF treatment, I had been a patient of our local fertility clinic, had initial success with fresh transfer but several fails after trying for number 2, I guess no explicit medical reason, just that my mom is there and I could stay with her and would help being stress free, so how much and how do I claim this from Revenue Canada? I suppose both local clinics suggested donor egg and I wanted to have one last try at own egg IVF so that is the main reason I am going.

Would appreciate any help in this regard, thx