Self-employed Individuals Are Allowed To Take A Tax Deduction For Their Medicare Premiums

If you are age 65 or older and self-employed, I have great news, you may be able to take a tax deduction for your Medicare Part A, B, C, and D premiums as well as the premiums that you pay for your Medicare Advantage or Medicare Supplemental coverage.  This is a huge tax benefit for business owners age 65 and older because most individuals without businesses are not able to deduct their Medicare premiums, so they have to be paid with after-tax dollars.

Individuals Without Businesses

If you do not own a business, you are age 65 or older, and on Medicare, you are only allowed to deduct “medical expenses” that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) for that tax year.  Medical expenses can include Medicare premiums, deductibles, copays, coinsurance, and other noncovered services that you have to pay out of pocket.  For example, if your AGI is $80,000, your total medical expenses would have to be over $6,000 ($80,000 x 7.5%) for the year before you would be eligible to start taking a tax deduction for those expenses. 

But it gets worse, medical expenses are an itemized deduction which means you must forgo the standard deduction to claim a tax deduction for those expenses.  For 2022, the standard deduction is $12,950 for single filers and $25,900 for married filing joint.   Let’s look at another example, you are a married filer, $70,000 in AGI,  and your Medicare premiums plus other medical expenses total $12,000 for the year since the 7.5% threshold is $5,250 ($70,000 x 7.5%), you would be eligible to deduct the additional $6,750 ($12,000 - $5,250) in medical expenses if you itemize.  However, you would need another $13,600 in tax deductions just to get you up to the standard deduction limit of $25,900 before it would even make sense to itemize.

Self-Employed Medicare Tax Deduction

Self-employed individuals do not have that 7.5% of AGI threshold, they are able to deduct the Medicare premiums against the income generated by the business. A special note in that sentence, “against the income generated by the business”, in other words, the business has to generate a profit in order to take a deduction for the Medicare premiums, so you can’t just create a business, that has no income, for the sole purpose of taking a tax deduction for your Medicare premiums.  Also, the IRS does not allow you to use the Medicare expenses to generate a loss.

For business owners, it gets even better, not only can the business owner deduct the Medicare premiums for themselves but they can also deduct the Medicare premiums for their spouse.  The standard Medicare Part B premium for 2022 is $170.10 per month for EACH spouse, now let’s assume that they both also have a Medigap policy that costs $200 per month EACH, here’s how the annual deduction would work:

Business Owner Medicare Part B:   $2,040 ($170 x 12 months)

Business Owner Medigap Policy:    $2,400

Spouse Medicare Part B:                  $2,040

Spouse Medigap Policy:                 $2,400

Total Premiums:                               $8,880

If the business produces $10,000 in net profit for the year, they would be able to deduct the $8,880 against the business income, which allows the business owner to pay the Medicare premiums with pre-tax dollars. No 7.5% AGI threshold to hurdle. The full amount is deductible from dollar one and the business owner could still elect the standard deduction on their personal tax return.

The Tax Deduction Is Limited Only To Medicare Premiums

When we compare the “medical expense” deduction for individual taxpayers that carries the 7.5% AGI threshold and the deduction that business owners can take for Medicare premiums, it’s important to understand that for business owners the deduction only applies to Medicare premiums NOT their total “medical expenses” for the year which include co-pays, coinsurance, and other out of pocket costs.   If a business owner has large medical expenses outside of the Medicare premiums that they deducted against the business income, they would still be eligible to itemize on their personal tax return, but the 7.5% AGI threshold for those deductions comes back into play.

What Type of Self-Employed Entities Qualify?

To be eligible to deduct the Medicare premiums as an expense against your business income your business could be set up as a sole proprietor, independent contractor, partnership, LLC, or an S-corp shareholder with at least 2% of the common stock.

The Medicare Premium Deduction Lowers Your AGI

The tax deduction for Medicare Premiums for self-employed individuals is considered an “above the line” deduction, which lowers their AGI, an added benefit that could make that taxpayer eligible for other tax credits and deductions that are income based.  If your company is an S-corp, the S-corp can either pay your Medicare Premiums on your behalf as a business expense or the S-corp can reimburse you for the premiums that you paid, report those amounts on your W2, and you can then deduct it on Schedule 1 of your 1040.

Employer-Subsidized Health Plan Limitation

One limitation to be aware of, is if either the business owner or their spouse is eligible to enroll in an employer-subsidized health plan through their employer, you are no longer allowed to deduct the Medicare Premiums against your business income.  For example, if you and your spouse are both age 66, and you are self-employed, but your spouse has a W2 job that offers health benefits to cover both them and their spouse, you would not be eligible to deduct the Medicare Premiums against your business income. This is true even if you voluntarily decline the coverage. If you or your spouse is eligible to participate, you cannot take a deduction for their Medicare premiums.

I receive the question, “What if they are only employed for part of the year with health coverage available?”  For the month that they were eligible for employer-subsidized health plan, a deduction would not be able to be taken during those months for the Medicare premiums.

On the flip side, if the health plan through their employer is considered “credible coverage” by Medicare, you may not have to worry about Medicare premiums anyways.

Multiple Businesses

If you have multiple businesses, you will have to select a single business to be the “sponsor” of your health plan for the purpose of deducting your Medicare premiums. It’s usually wise to select the business that produces a consistent net profit because net profits are required to deduct all or a portion of the Medicare premium expense. 

Forms for Tax Reporting

You will have to keep accurate records to claim this deduction.  If you collect Social Security, the Medicare premiums are deducted directly from the social security benefit, but they issue you a SSA-1099 Form at the end of the year which summarized the Medicare Premiums that you paid for Part A and Part B. 

If you have a Medigap Policy (Supplemental) with a Part D plan or a Medicare Advantage Plan, you normally make premium payments directly to the insurance company that you have selected to sponsor your plan.  You will have to keep records of those premium payments.

No Deduction For Self-Employment Taxes

As a self-employed individual, the Medicare premiums are eligible for a federal, state, and local tax deduction but they do not impact your self-employment taxes which are the taxes that you pay to fund Medicare and Social Security.

Amending Your Tax Returns

If you have been self-employed for a few years, paying Medicare premiums, and are just finding out now about this tax deduction, the IRS allows you to amend your tax returns up to three years from the filing date.  But again, the business had to produce a profit during those tax years to be eligible to take the deduction for those Medicare premiums.

DISCLOSURE:  This information is for educational purposes only. For tax advice, please consult a tax professional.

  

About Michael……...

Hi, I’m Michael Ruger. I’m the managing partner of Greenbush Financial Group and the creator of the nationally recognized Money Smart Board blog . I created the blog because there are a lot of events in life that require important financial decisions. The goal is to help our readers avoid big financial missteps, discover financial solutions that they were not aware of, and to optimize their financial future.