Deducting a New Swimming Pool as a Medical Expense

[dyne]

Monday night a tax expert appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Lenno.
The tax expert answered the first three questions WRONG in my opinion.
One question was If a doctor prescribes that a new swimming pool be installed to
alleviate a medical condition, can it be deducted as a medical expense? The tax
expert answered: YES.

First it is is NOT likely that a doctor will ever prescribe a swimming pool for a medical
condition. If it is for general health improvement it would never qualify. However in the
unlikely event that a doctor did prescribe a swimming pool to be used for medical
reasons, a deduction MIGHT be allowed but only to the extent that the pool does NOT
increase the value of the home. In many cases the value of the home would be increased
by the addition of the swimming pool by an amount equal to the cost of the pool and no
deduction would be allowed.

[taxmom34]

what were the other two wrong answers?

[dyne]

I do not remember the two other wrong answers.

[oceanlovin'ea]

I want a swimming pool too. It will help me lose weight. Doctor said I need to exercise.

Something needs to help the value of my house. It is on its way back down to what I paid for it 35 years ago.

Linda, EA

[Burke]

The other one was pertaining to the deductiblity of expenses by a prostitute in Oklahoma, where it is an illegal activity. You can view the video's on-line, (I didn't) but these were the only two mentioned in the text.

[FEDUKE404]

Verily

...consider the source of this "expertise" and the fact all of this was on the Jay Leno show...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4jAq1tsXoA

FE

[Gary]

Amend

I've had a pool for thirteen years. Can I amend my 1998 return?????

[MRPLOW]

Where I live in the Sate of Ohio installing a swimming pool will NOT increase the value of your house.

[geekgirldany]

When I was a teenager a doctor told my parents to build a indoor swimming pool because of some back problems I had at the time. First off like my parents could have afforded that. But who knows, if they knew they could have got a tax deduction they might have built it.

Instead I got an above ground pool that busted open on the side when my brother jumped off a ladder into it. There I went out with the water into the yard. Good times