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Archive for August, 2010

What are tax deductible medical expenses? Tax-deductible medical expenses may include the costs of diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, and the costs for treatments affecting any part or function of the body. They may also include the costs of equipment, supplies, and diagnostic devices needed for these purposes. Dental expenses are also covered. The incurred expenses must be primarily to alleviate or prevent a physical or mental defect or illness. Expenses that are merely beneficial to general health are not included.

What is long term care?Long-term care comprises a variety of services that include medical and non-medical care to people who have a chronic illness or disability such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, ALS, arthritis, diabetes, and MS.  Long-term care helps meet health or personal needs. Most long-term care is to assist people with support services such as activities of daily living like dressing, bathing, and using the bathroom. Long-term care can be provided at home, in the community, in assisted living or in nursing homes. It is important to remember that persons of any age may need long-term care. 

What amount may be deducted and by whom?To compute the allowable amount of medical deductions for the taxable year, the medical expenses must exceed 7.5% of the taxpayer’s adjusted gross income. Medical expenses paid for by and for taxpayer, taxpayer’s spouse and dependents are includible in this calculation. Such expenses for someone with chronic illness or disability disease may be deducted on his or her own return, on a joint return filed with his or her spouse, or on the return of another person if the ill person is the other person’s dependent.

What are some tax deductible expenses that might be incurred by someone in need of long-term care?

•Home care, attendant care and home-based respite care: If certification of chronic illness is obtained and services are provided under a plan of care prescribed by a licensed health-care practitioner, the cost of an attendant to perform qualified long-term-care services is a medical expense and is tax deductible. •Nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, group homes, congregate-living facilities, adult-day-care programs, facility-based respite, etc. The tax code does not specify that qualified-long-term care services must be provided in any particular setting. Thus, as long as a certification of chronic illness is obtained and the services are provided under a plan of care prescribed by a licensed health-care practitioner, qualified long-term-care services should be considered medical expenses irrespective of the type of facility in which provided. •Home improvements:  Reasonable costs to make home improvements are considered medical expenses if the main purpose is medical care and the expense is directly related to medical care. •Psychiatric care. •Health insurance premiums including those premiums for qualified long-term-care insurance (not life insurance). •Nursing services need not be performed by a nurse as long as the services are of a kind generally performed by a nurse. This includes services connected with caring for the patient’s condition, such as giving medication or changing dressings, as well as bathing and grooming the patient.  •Personal-care services: These are services intended to provide needed assistance with any of the disabilities that cause the individual to be chronically ill and include protection from threats to health and safety due to severe cognitive impairment. •Prescription medicines and drugs must be prescribed by a doctor.  With the exception of insulin, amounts paid for medicines or drugs that are not prescribed (or for any drugs which have been imported from other countries) are not deductible. •Durable medical equipment, supplies, diapers. •Entrance and accommodation fees for CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement Community).

How is qualified long-term-care services defined?Qualified long-term-care services are necessary diagnostic, preventive, therapeutic, curing, treating, mitigating, rehabilitative services, and maintenance and personal-care services that are (1) required by a chronically-ill individual, and; (2) provided under a plan of care prescribed by a licensed health-care practitioner.

Who is a chronically-ill Individual? Patients may qualify as “chronically-ill individuals” if they meet one of these two tests:

•Activities of Daily Living (ADLs): patient must be certified as unable to perform, without substantial assistance from another person, at least two ADLs (eating, toileting, bathing, dressing and continence).  This disability must exist for at least 90 days and be due to a loss of functional capacity, •Substantial Supervision/Cognitive Impairment Test: patients must be certified as requiring substantial supervision to protect themselves from threats to health and safety due to “severe cognitive impairment”. The federal tax authorities have given guidance that “severe cognitive impairment” means a loss or deterioration in intellectual capacity that includes Alzheimer’s disease and similar forms of irreversible dementia, and is reported in good faith by clinical evidence and standardized tests that measure impairment in (1) short- or long-term memory, (2) orientation to people, places or time, and (3) deductive or abstract reasoning.

Guidance also exists stating that “substantial supervision” means continual supervision by another person that is necessary to protect severely cognitively-impaired individuals against threats to their health or safety.

What are the required certifications, care plans, etc.?  For purposes of the tax deduction, a person must be certified as meeting the requirements of a chronically-ill individual. This certification must be done by a licensed health-care practitioner (MD, RN, or licensed social worker “within the preceding 12-month period,” which implies an annual review for a person with a chronic illness or disability.) 

When can you consider a personal health care item to be safe? Well, in today’s modern times, people are now realizing the importance of natural products. Did you know that there are natural personal health care products that you can purchase in the market? You see, some products are chemically based while other products make use of natural ingredients. The choice is up to the individual using the product but don’t you think it’s best to purchase safe personal health care items? Personal health care items which are considered safe are not necessarily free from chemicals. In fact, in order to live, people use chemicals like dihydrogen oxide. Cellular functions of the body also need a chemical called sodium chloride. The former is more commonly known as water and the latter is salt. So you see, some of the things people consider safe is not exactly free of chemicals. This is also true with personal care products. These products are free from toxic and harmful chemicals. All the personal care products are safely manufactured and undergo certain production processes. The manufacture sees to it that the processes don’t make use of toxic and harmful substances or chemicals. For personal care products to be classified as safe, the product items should ne minimally processed and the manufacturer did not use synthetic perfumes and dyes. Personal care products are available in different kinds. The industry of minimally processed or organic personal care products is still new but it is already growing enormously. You can find these natural and safe products in cosmetics, shampoos, and other products for skin care. According to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), most of the commercial personal health care products contain more than 10,000 chemical ingredients and the FDA only found 1,100 products to be safe. Most of the chemicals used are carcinogenic and so you have to be very careful when purchasing personal care items. Here is a guide to purchasing safe personal care items. You use shampoo everyday, right? So you need to purchase one in the store. You have to carefully check the ingredients of the shampoo. All shampoos contain water and some other ingredients. You can’t possibly memorize the harmful or safe chemicals. Here’s a secret – read the name of the ingredient and if you can’t even figure it out or if the name sounds very strange, don’t buy it and look for another one. When you’re purchasing cosmetics or perfumes, stay away from items that contain synthetic dyes like FD&C or D&C and propylene glycol. Safe cosmetics will usually contain natural and harmless minerals like kohl, ochre, and dyes which are vegetable-based. These wholesome substances have been around even during the Neolithic times. Now that you know that the personal health care items contain some harmful chemicals, perhaps it’s now high time to switch to safer personal care products. These products are not hard to find. You can simply ask the store personnel if they sell natural and safe personal care items like shampoos and cosmetics. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in local stores, you can also search for them on the net. The internet is full of resources that you can make use. By simply visiting online stores and typing for the product that you’re searching for, you can obtain a lot of results. Switch now.

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The recent men’s clothing line as well as women’s clothing line appropriate for athletic performance has revolutionized the clothing industry. What used to be very conservative and uncomfortable athletic wear for those into fitness activities and other strenuous sports has now been redesigned to accommodate other needs of the wearer. As opposed to the sporty men’s clothing and women’s clothing of the yesteryears, today’s athletic apparel are more focused on giving the athletes more comfort and convenience amidst all the physical workout that they are constantly faced with.

Catching up with the latest trends in men’s clothing and women’s clothing are the competitive apparel wear from Triggonomics. They have fashionable men’s clothing ranging from tee shirts, long-sleeve shirts, beanies, hats, hoodies, and other sporty stuff. Among the women’s clothing line, Triggonomics has equally great ladies tees and panties. All of these are of celebrity fashion styles and looks. The good thing is Triggonomics has their clothing line designed in such a way that they are suitable to wear not only for regular gym workout but also for certain casual occasions that do not demand too much sweating.

Frank Trigg, founder, owner, and designer of the men’s clothing and women’s clothing lines from Triggonomics, have put into consider first and foremost the comfort and convenience of the owners in designing and creating his clothing line.

Frank Trigg is associated with world-famous sports groups and associations such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cage Fighting. Frank himself is into a lot of sports and physically demanding interests and hobbies like boxing, wrestling, martial arts, and other full contact activities. This makes him a credible person when it comes to design men’s clothing and women’s clothing apparel. A professional athlete himself, Frank knows exactly the factors that need heavy consideration when it comes to athletic apparel. Some of which are as follows:

1. The fabrics to be used should be able to keep any moisture (such as one’s sweat or perspiration) away from the body instead of into the body.

2. Workout clothes should answer the functional needs of the athlete making sure that the wearer feels comfortable even when performing the regular gym workouts.

3. The workout clothes should be friendly to the skin. Some fabric may have negative to one’s skin especially when it comes heavy with sweat or other body fluids.

4. Your workout clothes should definitely last long and not just for a couple of times of wearing them.

5. And most importantly, workout or sports clothes should feel good and look good on you.

Frank Trigg also advices those who are into serious athletic activities and workouts to now skimp on their athletic wear. Well-made outfits for men’s clothing and women’s clothing for sports will help you stand up to your workout.

With the high-quality apparel you get from Trigg’s collection, it feels like wearing celebrity clothing with great celebrity fashion—definitely worth your every penny.

Sybil Smith
Scholar, iconoclast, social worker. Born March 19, 1932, in Newmarket, Ont. Died Jan. 3 in Toronto of kidney disease, aged 77.

Read more on The Globe and Mail

Local news in brief, August 25, 2010
The surface condition at Ski Santa Fe is “green grass” rather than “packed powder,” and 0 percent of the mountain is open. But most season passes are still on sale at reduced prices until Nov. 15.

Read more on Santa Fe New Mexican

Local news in brief, August 25, 2010
The surface condition at Ski Santa Fe is “green grass” rather than “packed powder,” and 0 percent of the mountain is open. But most season passes are still on sale at reduced prices until Nov. 15.

Read more on Santa Fe New Mexican

Big Brothers Big Sisters program makes a lasting impact in Warren County
Sending a thank you are children served by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hunterdon Somerset & Warren. Story Written By Andrea Lovas WASHINGTON — At the age of 12, Kristen was having trouble in school. In fact, she found out,…

Read more on The Warren Reporter

Laura Schauer: Taser use in need of regulation
There is a disturbing pattern emerging here in New Mexico: inappropriate and excessive use of Tasers by law enforcement.

Read more on Silver City Sun-News

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