Healthcare Costs and Tax Relief

Dental and optical treatment

No tax relief is available for routine ophthalmic and dental care including:

• sight testing
• provision and maintenance of glasses and contact lenses
• scaling and filling of teeth
• provision and repairing of artificial teeth and dentures

However, some non-routine ophthalmic and dental treatments do qualify. The list of treatments and appliances that qualify for tax relief is added from time to time. If you're undergoing a new procedure or availing of a new appliance, it's worth checking whether you can claim tax relief. 

The following dental treatments do qualify for tax relief

Form Med 2 for claiming dental expenses

To claim relief for dental expenses, your dentist must complete a Med 2 Form like the one pictured below (a receipt for your dental expenses). If you receive treatment over more than one year, you’ll need a separate Med 2 for each year.

You don’t need to send your Med 2 Form to Revenue but you should keep it safe as it may be required if they need to check your claim. You can claim the dental expenses by claiming health expenses as usual and supplying the figure for dental expenses.

Travelling abroad for treatment

It’s also possible to claim tax relief on the cost of medical treatment obtained outside the state.

If the qualifying healthcare is only available outside Ireland, you can claim reasonable travelling and accommodation expenses. In such cases, the expenses of one person accompanying the patient may also be allowed if the condition of the patient requires it.

If the treatment is available in the state:

• You can’t claim travel expenses for this care
• The practitioner (GP, consultant or dentist) providing care must be entitled to practice in the country
• You can only claim for the cost of maintenance or treatment in a hospital, nursing home or clinic abroad if the hospital, nursing home or clinic provides access to 24-hour onsite care

If the patient is a child, the expenses of one parent are usually allowed. Both parents will be allowed in cases where it’s clear that both need to be with the child.

Tax relief on Medical Insurance

You can also get tax relief if you’re a member of an approved private health insurance scheme.

A lot of people don’t notice when they’re getting the credit because it's taken at source as it’s generally granted directly by the insurance company and your premium is reduced by the amount of the tax credit.

There’s also a limit to tax relief on private health insurance premiums - €1,000 for each adult and €500 for each child. The relief is given at the rate of 20% of the cost. At Taxback we can let you know if you're due tax back on health insurance payments when you apply here.

There are some limited situations where Tax Relief at Source (TRS) doesn’t apply:

For instance, where your employer pays medical insurance premiums on your behalf. This is treated as a Benefit-in-Kind and PAYE, PRSI, and USC are due on the total amount. This means you will not benefit from the TRS on the medical insurance premium so you can make a claim directly to Revenue.

You can also get a tax credit for payments to long-term care insurance schemes. This operates in the same way as the health insurance tax credit.