How to calculate the additional medical tax credit if you are 65 or over

The medical tax credit you are entitled to for qualifying medical expenses that are not recouped from your medical scheme will be calculated for you by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) if you declare these expenses on your income tax return. Read more: What is the additional medical tax credit and who qualifies for it?

The expenses you claim must be qualifying ones and, if you are 65 or older, the credit will be one third of your unrecouped medical expenses plus some of your medical scheme contributions. 

If you want to do this calculation yourself to find out whether you are entitled to any tax relief for medical expenses that you were not able to claim from your medical scheme, you need to do the following calculation:

  1. Determine your annual contributions to your medical scheme.

  2. Determine your medical scheme fees tax credit for contributions paid. See what the credits are in the Tax Tables

  3. Multiply the credits for the year by 3.

  4. Deduct the answer in step 3 from the answer in step 1.

  5. Add up your unrecouped medical expenses. Add these to the answer in step 4.

  6. Multiply the answer in step 5 by 33.3%

 

EXAMPLE

Sam, aged 65, and Sam’s spouse, aged 63, are paying R3 874 a month to belong to their medical scheme.  They have paid R16 200 of medical expenses out of pocket.

The medical scheme fees credit for the 2023 tax year is R347 a month each for the first two dependents and R243 a month for any subsequent dependents.

  1. Sam’s annual contributions are: R3 874 x 12 = R46 488

  2. Sam’s medical tax credit is R347 + R347 = R694 a month. For the year, the credit is R694 x 12 = R8 328

  3. Three times this medical tax credit for the year is R8 328 x 3 = R24 984

  4. Sam’s medical scheme contributions exceed three times the credit by R21 504 (R46 488 – 24 984)

  5. Sam’s unrecouped medical expenses are R16 200. The unrecouped expenses plus the contributions above three times the medical tax credit are R37 704 (R21 504 + R16 200)

  6. Sam is entitled to R37 704 x 33.3% = R12 555 as an additional medical tax credit. This credit will be deducted after the tax owing on taxable income has been calculated.