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“If you have a child with a severe learning disability (LD), you may qualify for valuable tax benefits. If your child has AD/HD, or other physical, mental, or emotional impairment, you may also qualify for tax benefits. Because tax laws are complex, and many tax preparers often do not have occasion to use these unique tax benefits, families are at risk of losing refunds worth many thousands of dollars. It’s likely that 15-30 percent of families with a disabled child have one or more unclaimed tax benefits.”  The following was recently written by Michael A. O'Connor, an attorney who promotes awareness of tax policies that benefit families.  This informative article is in the electronic newsletter from SchwabLearning.org that ChildD highly recommends to all its subscribers.  SchwabLearning.org recommends copying and for your tax advisor.(Click on the following link to see the article.) Tax suggestions from schwablearning.org (It is mentioned that readers should not rely on the article alone to determine whether they can claim any or the tax benefits reviewed in it.)  This article acts as a guide of some, but not all, of the potential tax benefits that may be available to you. This online resource also recommends that you consider the IRS “Publications” that will present the tax rules for the general public. (For example, Revenue Ruling 78-340, discussed later, authorizes a medical expense deduction for tuition or tutoring fees paid for a child with a severe LD who is attending a special school at the recommendation of the child’s doctor.)

SchwabLearning.org also shares a “tip”. Relative caretakers, such as grandparents or aunts, and non-relative caretakers, such as foster parents, also may qualify for tax benefits.

In May 2000 the IRS issued good news for parents of children with disabilities. Parents who attend conferences to obtain medical information concerning treatment for and care of their child may deduct some of the costs of attending a medical conference relating to a dependent’s chronic health condition. (See Revenue Ruling 2000-24)

 The IRS has ruled that tuition costs for a special school that has a program designed to educate children with learning disabilities, and amounts paid for a child’s tutoring by a teacher specially trained and qualified to deal with severe learning disabilities, may also be deducted. Special instruction or training or therapy, such as sign language instruction, speech therapy, and remedial reading instruction also would be deductible. Related books and materials can qualify for the medical expense deduction. ( See Revenue Ruling 78-340, 1978-2 C.B. 124.)

The IRS allows taxpayers to file amended returns, and collect refunds for unclaimed tax benefits, retroactively up to three years. This means a taxpayer can file an amended return for the 2002 tax year (and also for the 2003 and 2004 tax years) and claim a refund if the return is filed not later than April 15, 2006. (See IRS Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax, 2005, at pp. 18-19.)

Diagnostic evaluations also qualify for a medical expense deduction. This can include testing by a speech-language pathologist, psychologist, neurologist, or other person with professional qualifications.

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