CRA review of medical expenses

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Thegipper
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CRA review of medical expenses

Post by Thegipper »

In late May I received a request from CRA for the receipts for my medical expenses. The expenses were usually high and were complex. The bulk involved expenses incurred for placing a grandchild in a drug addiction treatment centre. I sent the expenses with detailed explanation in early June and to date I have not received a responses. It has reached a stage were I should be contacting them. Since I have not received any response I assume they are having a long look at my claims. If they didn't receive my receipts I would have received a re-assessment. Would appreciate receiving suggestions.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by miguel »

my advice is leave well enough alone

if they really want to get hold of you they will

in any event it is very difficult to reach anyone there and if you get through it is hard to speak to the right person or anyone in authority

the CRA should be the least of your worries :D
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AltaRed
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

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Agreed. No need to contact CRA. They have all the info as they would have sent a second notice otherwise. The stuff is likely just piled up in a 30 foot stack waiting to be reviewed....or has been reviewed and put to bed. AFAIK, I've never been contacted by CRA as a result of having to submit supplemental information.

P.S. Just last week, CRA sent a final cheque (refund) plus interest to my mother's estate on a Loss Carryback request filed in March 2016. The wheels grind slowly.
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Arby
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by Arby »

I received a letter from CRA a few years ago, requesting receipts for some large medical expenses for my mother. CRA responded around 2 months later via a letter confirming that the medical expense claim was allowed. I don't foresee any issue if you want to contact CRA to get an update. In my mother's case, the request from CRA contained a reference number, so it shouldn't be that difficult for CRA to track down the status.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by miguel »

a reference number certainly helps

but, as has been pointed out, the wheels grind slowly

(if at all)
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

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if the wheels grind slowly they will definitely grind slowly here. The claim includes addiction clinic monthly fees, numerous mileage claims, recovery home expenses, doctor and recovery centre documents plus our own medical bills.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by Davis »

I was told that the Sudbury Tax Centre has a 17-week processing period. You can call and ask someone when you should expect to hear, or just wait it out.
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kcowan
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

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I am undergoing one of many medical audit requests. This one is particularly weird because I got my NOA May 4th and then a notice of installments due based on that. On June 22nd I get a revised NOA from Winnipeg asking for receipts. I submit those July 18th. Then I get a revised NOA dated July 26th from Winnipeg. It does not acknowledge my submission. Nor is it registered in MyCRA. I send advice via FAX to Winnipeg advising them to check with MyCRA.

Still nothing. I am expecting to hear from them by November. I just try to tolerate the incompetence because I believe making it efficient would cost us taxpayers more.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

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I usually get asked for med receipts. Have been asked again and will send in the 2016 receipts Tuesday. Often takes up to 3-4 months for response. When I put mine together I noticed a mistake (double count) that will result in more tax owing. Not worried about it. They will get back to you eventually. Might be a bit of interest.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

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SQRT wrote: 03 Sep 2017 19:00 I usually get asked for med receipts. Have been asked again and will send in the 2016 receipts Tuesday. Often takes up to 3-4 months for response. When I put mine together I noticed a mistake (double count) that will result in more tax owing. Not worried about it. They will get back to you eventually. Might be a bit of interest.
In my case I missed a large number of expenses so my claim will increase.
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kcowan
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by kcowan »

In my case, I submitted a slightly larger claim when asked for the receipts. I know that they get evaluated on how much their audit results in reductions, so I expect it will take longer.

Like the OP, I initially thought it would be a professional process, but it is not!
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by Zipper »

Your grandchild is very fortunate to have you on board.

It would have been stressful for all involved.

I hope the treatments were successful and your grandchild appreciates all that you have done.

Many of us are grandparents and we all want to see our families thrive.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

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Zipper wrote: 04 Sep 2017 09:29 Your grandchild is very fortunate to have you on board.

It would have been stressful for all involved.

I hope the treatments were successful and your grandchild appreciates all that you have done.

Many of us are grandparents and we all want to see our families thrive.
Thank you Zipper for those kind words. My granddaughter graduated from the program in March. She was in the program for 10 months. She appears to have overcome her addiction problems. She turned 16 in June and is attending high school this fall. The program she attended is called AARC in Calgary. It has a 4 million dollar budget and 3 million comes from donations. The remaining some comes from tuition fees paid by parents and grandparents. A U of Maryland study indicates that this program has a 80% success rate. It has been around since 1992. Governments seem to ignore the teen addiction problem or provide limited in effective support. 3 or 4 week programs will not work. It takes 3 or 4 months in the AARC program before the teen even recognizes that they have a problem.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by Seawinds »

Thegipper, I wouldn't fret much about not hearing from CRA. I had a similar situation this year with my mother's claim as she has higher than most medical expenses. The manner in which CRA handles things now is that a computer will generate a request for more info if the return is outside certain parameters. I am sure your letter said something about looking to justify the medical expenses claimed and giving you 30 days to respond. As long as the medical expenses qualify and you have receipts you have no worry.. CRA agents are overworked and can't handle the volume of information like a computer so it takes months to verify your claim. In the meantime enjoy the fall weather and no news is good news. If they disagree with any of it they will contact you.

And I agree.. .you are doing a wonderful thing for your granddaughter!
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

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Seawinds wrote: 16 Sep 2017 21:06 Thegipper, I wouldn't fret much about not hearing from CRA. I had a similar situation this year with my mother's claim as she has higher than most medical expenses. The manner in which CRA handles things now is that a computer will generate a request for more info if the return is outside certain parameters. I am sure your letter said something about looking to justify the medical expenses claimed and giving you 30 days to respond. As long as the medical expenses qualify and you have receipts you have no worry.. CRA agents are overworked and can't handle the volume of information like a computer so it takes months to verify your claim. In the meantime enjoy the fall weather and no news is good news. If they disagree with any of it they will contact you.

And I agree.. .you are doing a wonderful thing for your granddaughter!
Thank you for the kind and good words.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by Thegipper »

Received a request for documentation in July they got back to me in December. Once again I had missed some expenses and got a nice refund. I am starting to like these reviews.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by kcowan »

After three years of these useless audits in which I always produced more receipts than I had claimed, I think they have been told to lay off because such audits do not look good for them! (They were always a massage et al that DW had failed to give me but showed up on the credit card statement.)
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

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"CRA agents are overworked"??

What? Did you see the article. Canada has 2x as Many tax auditors and employees at CRA per capita as the IRS in the US for a population 10x the size. They are not overworked. They are inefficient and a waste of taxpayer money.
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kcowan
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by kcowan »

DWs cousin worked for them. They brought in rules for hiring. Females and visible minorities. No numeracy requirement. Now 10 years, the results are showing.

The MyAccount was outsourced but they accepted an inferior implementation.

The medical audits were always hard copy out of Winnipeg. I don't know why!
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by Adonis »

I’ve had the CRA audit my moving expenses one year and medical expenses another year. It takes forever but usually there are no issues. Just be patient they will eventually get to it.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by Davis »

Comparing CRA to IRS is not useful. In the US, states collect personal and corporate income taxes and sales taxes, meaning there is a large pool of tax staff you're overlooking in the US. In Canada, only Quebec collects personal income taxes separately, and only Quebec and Alberta collect corporate income taxes separately. CRA handles federal and provincial income taxes in the rest of the provinces. CRA collects federal and provincial sales taxes in 5-6 provinces, while Revenu Quebec collects both taxes in Quebec. This is much easier for taxpayers, and avoids wasteful duplication. More auditors means cheaters are more likely to get caught, so lower taxes for the rest of us.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

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It also means more harrassment. Let's be honest, are they going after the offshore Panama paper guys? It seems they go after those who declare, the common man. That is not a great system.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by brucecohen »

Davis wrote: 15 Feb 2019 15:01 Comparing CRA to IRS is not useful.
It's also not useful because Republican lawmakers have made concerted efforts to substantially weaken the IRS since 2010 when they won control of both House and Senate. While its workload has increased with new laws, the IRS budget has been cut by about one-fourth. Today the agency has fewer auditors than at any time since the very early 1950s. Lack of staff has reduced audits by more than 40% and investigations of non-filers by about 85%. "Uncollected debt" is tax owing for more than 10 years that the IRS has given up on getting. UD was $540 million for 2010 and $8.3 billion for 2017. Analysts estimate that lack of staff, archaic computer systems and other organizational problems cost Uncle Sam more than $18 billion a year in lost revenue.
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by scorpionman »

For deducting travel expenses for medical expenses it says,

"substantially equivalent medical services were not available near your home;"

I understand for dentists, family doctors this is obvious...

But what about something that requires a general doctor prescribe it (and often won't) or is 7x more expensive than somewhere else (e.g.. an MRI).

Do they consider substantially equivalent in terms of costs or inaccessibility in practice, or only merely that 'it exists'?
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Re: CRA review of medical expenses

Post by kcowan »

We have never had our Mexican expenses rejected. Including a 24-hour halter and an MRI But lately it has always been covered by extended insurance which is also deductible.
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