Lose weight and get a deduction

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Overweight Americans now have a new reason to shed some pounds. Recognizing obesity as a disease, the IRS says it will begin allowing taxpayers to claim weight-loss expenses as a medical deduction.

"It really opens the gate for everybody to be at a healthier weight. America really needs to wake up," said Linda Webb Carilli, a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers International Inc.

Apart from the tax break, the Internal Revenue Service ruling could pave the way for insurance companies and such government programs as Medicare to offer coverage for obesity treatment, experts say. Now, it is usually considered a symptom or precursor to some other disease.

"It legitimizes an important area that’s been on the fringe," said Morgan Downey, executive director of the nonprofit American Obesity Association.

Taxpayers have been able to deduct the costs of weight loss programs as a medical expense since 2000 only if they were recommended by a doctor to treat a specific disease. Obesity itself was not recognized by the IRS as an ailment that qualified for the weight loss expense deduction.

Tuesday’s ruling qualifies obesity itself as a disease.

Obesity is defined by the federal government as excessive mass for a given person’s height. Some examples: a person 5 feet 5 inches tall is considered obese at 180 pounds; for a person 6 feet tall, 221 pounds is listed as obese.

To take the deduction, a taxpayer will have to participate in a weight-loss program for medically valid reasons. Simply joining a gym or a weight control program to "improve the taxpayer’s appearance, general health and sense of well-being" and not under a physician’s guidance will not qualify, the IRS said.

The ruling applies not only to 2001 income tax returns — which are due April 15 in most of the country — but as far back as 1998. Taxpayers who want to take a deduction for past expenses need only file an amended return for the tax year in question.