 internal revenue service IRS tax news IRS addresses questions about medical expenses related to nutrition wellness and general health address questions about medical expenses on I mean knowing the government that probably means they're gonna literally put a dress on the questions and then like post pictures of it to a tiktok account or something and as if that's helpful then they'll be like it wasn't weren't we helpful with that but seriously like I've had a lot of parents who had to spend a lot of time and money preventing their child from getting like 20 COVID shots with no evidence the risks outweigh the benefits I mean they had to scurry around fending off fibbing Fauci followers some having to pay for homeschooling and and I feel like those expenses should be qualified medical expenses why because we should be incentivizing preventative care a primary component of which is keeping your kid away from drug dealers you know I don't I don't care if those drug dealers work for Mexican drug cartels big pharma or some Chinese lab in Wuhan for crying out loud labs possibly funded by fibbing Fauci hold up hold on a second here I'm starting to think they're all in it together what just one giant cartel dang gangsters I mean they actually normalized mask wearing so nobody can see their tails I mean honestly like like I thought it was cheating when some dude rolls into the poker table with dark sunglasses on so you can't see his eyes but these guys took it to a whole nother level strolling up to the podium with full face masks behind which they've been pulling some of the biggest bluffs you've ever seen I'll tell you what I mean honestly they've got stuff so turned around it's crazy like it used to be it used to be like normal people would have a certain degree of natural skepticism when someone with a mask on tells them to do something like normally if some mask I told me to shut down my business I generally assume he had a gun or something or possibly that he's crazy in which case I pay about as much attention to him as a major league pitching recruiter pays to fibbing Fauci's professional baseball prospects you know I mean but but but they actually got to the point there for a bit we're wearing a mask generated more respect for authority than a police officer showing his badge even if the mask wearer was currently filling shopping carts full of liquor at a grocery store and then just strolling out the door with it I mean it's crazy times man I tell you what honestly like when the medical profession caches in its goodwill abandoning the Hippocratic oath of do no harm by slinging drugs and cutting off body parts for money it's scary I mean like it's it's no surprise when people start reacting with it you know just a little bit of skepticism it's like okay so what's the new what's the new plan this time what do they want to do this time oh I see fibbing Fauci wants to give me another ouchie and Rachel Levine wants to cut off my testes but but just for 15 days you know to slow the spread because it's totally reversible it's like I don't think so I don't think so I draw the line at the foreskin dang it and to be honest like I'm starting to question that whole procedure at this point I never put my foot down about anything but I am severely tempted to do it over this March I'm sorry I think it's coming down it's coming down my foot that's it March it's coming down the cable stays the foot is spoken but whatever anyways onto the news I are 2023 dash 47 March 17 2023 Washington the internal revenue service today posted frequently asked questions there's a link to that here that addressed whether certain costs related to nutrition wellness and general health are medical expenses that may be paid or reimbursed under a health savings account otherwise known as an HSA health flexible spending arrangement on FSA Archer medical saving account and Archer MSA or a health reimbursement arrangement and HRA these FAQs frequently asked questions are part of the national strategy on hunger nutrition and health there's a link to that here the national strategy provides a roadmap of actions the federal government will take to end hunger and reduce diet related diseases by 2023 I again a little bit of skepticism over here it'll work about as well as that old food pyramid they had that resulted in everybody like being obese or something but maybe that you know I don't know I don't know I'll do my own research but I'll check it out generally at deduction is allowed for expenses paid during the taxable year for medical care if certain requirements are met alternatively medical expenses are eligible to be paid or reimbursed under an HSA FSA Archer MSA or HRA the FAQs address issues such as whether the cost of nutritional counseling weight loss programs gym membership treatment for substance use disorders are considered medical expenses that may be paid or reimbursed under HSA FSA Archer MSA or HRA see these are the questions that come up when they started to deduct the medical expenses which has always been kind of an interesting area because they wanted to incentivize medical expenses of course so people can afford medical care that makes sense but it also kind of subsidizes certain industries and there's a bunch of gray area in terms of what qualifies for medical expenses and what doesn't qualify for medical expenses you can imagine there's been a lot of different kind of weird scenarios people going on vacation and saying their doctor said that they should have gone on vacation that's typically not something that would be allowed as a medical expense but you could see people trying to argue that kind of situation if you had a situation where you're going to buy like a whirlpool which is basically a jacuzzi or something like that there's all these kind of weird situations and the next thing that comes up oftentimes is the categorization of something as being a disease or not so now we've got this categorization problem because if you categorize something as a medical illness or a disease of some kind then you're able to legally more likely be able to argue that you should get compensation for expenses related to something categorized as a disease and the thing that's kind of troublesome to me about that is they start to categorize things as diseases that might be more properly healthfully treated as like habit type forming things such as weight like if you have obesity or something like that people are actually incentivized to get into the category of being a disease related to obesity or something like that if they were able to then take deductions or get benefits for like things like food like dietary food those are some arguments that kind of come up with this and I would think that you know to me to tell someone that what they have is a disease if it's more of a behavioral thing it seems like to me you're putting something in their mind in order to get money a tax benefit or something like that which may not be the proper structure health wise for them right you I mean I would think it might be more healthy to think of it as something you have control of with with your behavior possibly then a disease I'm not sure if that's exactly true or not but I do think that some of this push towards things being labeled as a disease are financially related because then if it's labeled as a disease you might be able to get a deduction for it but now you have to basically constantly be putting down and labeling yourself as having a disease which seems mentally not healthy if you can frame it as something you have control over but so it's kind of a weird situation this whole health situation and the taxes and the labelings and all this stuff so in any case for more information about whether costs related to nutrition wellness and general health are medical expenses see publication 502 medical and dental expenses there's a link to that here and tax topic 502 medical and dental expenses there's a link to that for more information about HSAs FSAs Archer MSAs and HRAs you can see publication 969 health savings account and other tax favored health plans there's a link to that will be a link to this in the description