Ireland Medical Expenses Tax Relief 2025 — 20% Relief

Two different rates, not one

Most qualifying health expenses attract relief at the standard rate of 20% — regardless of whether you actually pay tax at 20% or 40%. Nursing home fees are the exception: they are relieved at your own highest (marginal) rate of tax, which can be up to 40% for a higher-rate taxpayer. That distinction alone can double the value of the relief for a family paying for long-term nursing home care compared with an ordinary medical bill.

There is no minimum threshold you must clear before health expenses relief applies — unlike some other reliefs, every euro of a qualifying expense attracts relief from the first euro, at whichever of the two rates applies.

What qualifies

• Fees paid to a doctor or consultant
• Prescribed drugs and medicines, where supplied on the prescription of a qualifying practitioner
• Physiotherapy or similar treatment, but only when you were referred by a doctor or other qualifying practitioner — not for a self-referred session
• Non-routine dental treatment — crowns, veneers, orthodontic work, and similar — evidenced by a Form Med 2 completed by your dentist
• Nursing home fees, at the marginal rate described above

What does not qualify

Routine dental treatment does not qualify at all — scaling, extractions, and fillings are excluded, however necessary they were. Routine, unprescribed eye tests and similarly routine, ordinary healthcare are treated the same way: qualifying relief is for treatment of an ailment or condition beyond routine maintenance, not for routine check-ups you would have regardless of symptoms.

How to claim

A PAYE taxpayer claims through myAccount, entering the expenses under the health expenses section — there is no need to submit receipts or the Med 2 form with the claim, but you must keep them, since Revenue can request them afterward. A self-assessed taxpayer completes the health expenses section of the annual Form 11 through ROS instead. Claims can be made for the current year and backdated up to four years, so a family that never claimed for a previous year's hospital bill has not necessarily lost the relief.

Worked example

A family pays €4,000 in consultant fees, €800 in prescribed medication, and €1,500 for their child's orthodontic treatment (non-routine dental, backed by Form Med 2) in the same tax year — a total of €6,300 in qualifying expenses, all relieved at 20%.

• Relief due: €6,300 × 20% = €1,260

Separately, the same family pays €30,000 in nursing home fees for a grandparent, and one family member is a 40% marginal-rate taxpayer who bore that cost.

• Relief due at the marginal rate: €30,000 × 40% = €12,000

The nursing home relief alone is worth double the standard-rate relief on the other €6,300 of medical bills combined, despite the nursing home bill being under five times as large — the marginal rate, not the amount, is what makes the difference.

FAQ

Q: Do I need to submit my receipts to Revenue when I claim through myAccount? A: No, but keep them — Revenue can ask you to produce them after the claim, and relief already granted can be clawed back if you cannot substantiate it.

Q: Can I claim for a health expense I paid for someone else, like an elderly parent? A: Yes. You can claim relief for qualifying expenses you paid for any individual, not only for yourself or your own dependants.

Q: How far back can I claim if I forgot a previous year? A: Up to four years from the end of the tax year in which the expense was incurred.

Sources

Figures verified against Revenue guidance as of 30 July 2026:

• Revenue — "Health expenses" (20% standard-rate relief; marginal-rate relief for nursing home fees, up to 40%; no minimum threshold)
• Revenue Tax and Duty Manual Part 15-01-12, "Health Expenses – Qualifying Expenses" (doctor and consultant fees, prescribed drugs, referred physiotherapy, non-routine dental treatment via Form Med 2, exclusion of routine dental treatment)
• Revenue — "How do you claim health expenses?" (myAccount for PAYE taxpayers, Form 11/ROS for self-assessed taxpayers, four-year backdating window)