Tax relief on medicines listed on my prescription but also available over the counter?

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Up Rovers

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I've had a quick read on Google, Citizens Information and the Revenue website but still not 100% sure about tax relief on certain medicines listed on my prescription.

My G.P. added an item recently to my monthly prescription which sometimes meets the €80.00 Drugs Payment Scheme figure but depending on needs quite often does not meet it. I was told by pharmacist that this item is not covered under the Drug Payment Scheme and I had to purchase it over the counter. When I asked if they knew if it would then qualify for tax relief because it is on the prescription they thought it would not.

I hope to remain on it indefinitely so just wondering if anyone can confirm the tax relief status in such cases? I also had another item a while back in the same category.
 
Up Rovers said:
I had to purchase it over the counter.
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Is it an item available only with a prescription or can anyone buy it over the counter?
Do you get the proper prescription type receipt or just a till receipt?
If it's a prescribed medicine then even if it doesn't qualify for DPS I'd be claiming on MED1 and have done so in past.

The guidelines state: "If prescribed by a doctor" for eligible medicines.

Tax relief on medical expenses

You can claim tax relief on medical expenses that you pay for yourself or for someone else.
www.citizensinformation.ie www.citizensinformation.ie
 
Further questions:

If you ask the pharmacy to print your prescriptions list, is it on it? If not, then I don't think you can claim.

Does it appear as a named, listed item on your prescription receipt? If yes, then you are sorted. If not, read on.

The issue is that till receipts may not list what the item was for, so if queried by Revenue how will you support your claim.
Try to pay for the OTC item separately, and see if the receipt lists the name of the item.
Then take a picture of the receipt (till receipts fade) for your records so you know how much you spent in the year on that item.
 
odyssey06 said:
Is it an item available only with a prescription or can anyone buy it over the counter?
Click to expand...

Anyone can buy it over the counter but still the G.P. put it on the prescription and didn't mention the OTC aspect.
odyssey06 said:
Do you get the proper prescription type receipt or just a till receipt?
Click to expand...

For this and the previous items just the till receipt and it is not listed on the prescription receipt.
odyssey06 said:
If it's a prescribed medicine then even if it doesn't qualify for DPS I'd be claiming on MED1 and have done so in past.

The guidelines state: "If prescribed by a doctor" for eligible medicines.
Click to expand...

This is the point that was worrying me about claiming for it. It is being prescribed by the G.P. but then not eligible to go on the prescription receipt so am wondering how Revenue would deal with this?


Another question that has arisen recently is that the pharmacy have on two occasions recently not provided me with the prescription receipt. When I queried it with them last month they then printed them off for me but the same thing has happened this month. Is it necessary for my tax claim to have those receipts?
 
If it's not listed on the prescription receipt then I'd be hesitant to claim it on MED1.

Some pharmacies prefer to issue a single one at year end - double check with them if that's their process. Otherwise yeah ask for the proper prescription receipt month to month. I keep them in a folder and tot them up when making my claim.
 
You can only claim tax back on prescription medicines which appear on the prescription receipt. It doesn't matter that the doctor wrote non-prescription/over-the-counter items on the prescription itself, that's just for handiness. I always check that the prescription receipt is in the bag before I leave the pharmacy. I keep my receipts but have never had to provide same to Revenue.
 
odyssey06 said:
Some pharmacies prefer to issue a single one at year end - double check with them if that's their process.
Click to expand...

Yes they do issue an end of year receipt which I collect each year. Its handy as a back-up in case of audit.
michaelm said:
I always check that the prescription receipt is in the bag before I leave the pharmacy. I keep my receipts but have never had to provide same to Revenue.
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Yes, in light of it happening two months now I will check with them in future before leaving.
 
michaelm said:
I keep my receipts but have never had to provide same to Revenue.
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Just to add to this - I have previously been asked to upload a full year of scanned receipts to Revenue before they paid the refund from my MED1. Definitely keep your receipts! The upload also asks you to specify if you have had any part of this paid by health insurance, so make sure to keep your receipts for any reimbursement payments as well if this applies to you!

(The one benefit of uploading them to Revenue is then you are supposedly no longer on the hook to keep the physical paper receipts — but I still tend to for several years anyway)…
 
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michaelm said:
You can only claim tax back on prescription medicines which appear on the prescription receipt.
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I don't think that's true.

What are qualifying expenses?

This page outlines qualifying expenses for healthcare
www.revenue.ie www.revenue.ie
You can also claim relief on the following if you are prescribed, referred or advised to, by a practitioner:
  • drugs and medicines
  • ...
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Nothing there says that they must be controlled/prescribed drugs and not over the counter etc.
 
The relevant legislation, which is section 469 TCA 1997, defines "health expenses" as "expenses in respect of the provision of health care, being expenses representing the cost of...
... drugs or medicines supplied on the prescription of a practitioner".

"Prescription" is not defined in the section, which means it takes its plain ordinary meaning.

Therefore, if the doctor wrote down that you are to be supplied with X, Y and Z at the pharmacy, then they are all health expenses for the purposes of the tax relief, notwithstanding that any or all of them are available OTC.
 
If planning to claim:
Important to keep print outs of the actual doctor's prescription with the name of the item noted to keep.
Along with a receipt that hopefully lists the item purchased OTC with its specific price.
 
torblednam said:
Therefore, if the doctor wrote down that you are to be supplied with X, Y and Z at the pharmacy, then they are all health expenses for the purposes of the tax relief, notwithstanding that any or all of them are available OTC.
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One could reasonably interpret it that way. And maybe Revenue would take a similar view. But I expect that they will ultimately only allow amounts shown on the pharmacy's prescription receipt.
odyssey06 said:
Important to keep print outs of the actual doctor's prescription with the name of the item noted to keep.
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Our doctor emails the prescription to the pharmacy. We never see it. I assume that is increasingly the case.
 
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michaelm said:
Our doctor emails the prescription to the pharmacy. We never see it. I assume that is increasingly the case.
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Yes, I always ask pharmacy to print a copy as have no idea of exactly what's on it , number of repeats etc.
Some form of it should be copied to the patient imo.
 
I asked about this years ago to my doctor when the pharmacist told me that I could get the medicine without prescription. His answer was that they charge more for it over the counter and would rather that. I would insist on getting it by prescription if it's prescribed by your doctor.
Disclaimer: No I won't name the doctor and I accepted his explanation which may not be correct but is plausible.
 
I prefer to err on the side of caution when dealing with Revenue and keep it simple. In any event, I don't want to ask the pharmacy to print the prescription each time, nor keep additional receipts, for the very odd time our doctor might write some OTC item on a prescription, for small beer.
 
elcato said:
His answer was that they charge more for it over the counter and would rather that.
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That can work both ways. I was prescribed some hydrocortisone cream by a GP, and when looking for it to be filled, the pharmacist came out to speak with me saying that I could get it for cheaper OTC. The cost if I got it via the prescription would be more, as it would have included dispensing fees.
 
As a side suggestion, it may be as an OTC item, especially if you can buy multiple at same time, that you may save more money by shopping around then dealing with MED1 intricacies \ paperwork eg Chemist Warehouse, or online Irish discount pharmacies such as Inish Pharmacy.
 
odyssey06 said:
It may be as an OTC item, especially if you can buy multiple at same time, that you may save more money by shopping around then MED1 intricacies
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And even then, in my opinion/understanding, you can still claim MED1 tax relief on it even if it's OTC but you were told by your doctor/consultant to get it.
 
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