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I have had an overwhelming response so I summarized early. Many of you told 
me the same thing regarding the requirement that the costs must be or exceed 
7.5% of adjusted gross income. Those whose food and medical expenses are 
excessive in relationship to their adjusted gross income seem to qualify for 
reimbursement. Many stated that you must have certification of your celiac 
disease in case of an audit. Some feel that once a celiac diagnosis is 
established that one would have difficulty getting health care. I won't 
qualify for the deduction but it was a good exercise to be able to show my 
daughter how much more money she will need for her food once she is truly on 
her own. I guess we should all hope the surge in gluten free food vendors 
will soon lower the costs of the prodcuts.
Thanks to all,
KathyB

selected resposes to my post are as follows:

my DH and I do that successfully most years and often save a couple hundred. 
But that is because we have many medical expenses. Do you know that you can 
also deduct the cost to get to the health food store to buy to GF foods - or 
the shipping charges if you mail order. If you itemize deductions, you must 
exceed 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) in order to make it 
worthwhile to use itemizing rather than standard deduction. Itemized items 
would include our GF foods and related expenses, health insurance premiums, 
gas and parking for doctor visits, any unreimbursed health expenses such as 
co-pays for office visits or prescriptions.etc

"You can only deduct medical expenses that are in excess of 7.5% of your 
adjusted gross income...And only the difference between the g.f. & non-g.f. 
product can be counted...The g.f. bread we get locally costs only 70 more 
than their non-g.f. equivalent.  Some items specific to g.f. like xanthan 
and also shipping for g.f. can be counted in whole."

"Unless you have very high med expenses & little income, it's usually not 
worth the effort.  One older gentleman in our group did find he qualified 
for some extra services from the county based on the additional cost of g.f. 
but his income was so little he didn't even have to file taxes, let along 
itemize."




"A lady came in to buy GF goodies and saw my posting.  She's a CPA and 
agreed that it's a deduction.
     b. But she said if audited, you may have to prove that you are Celiac, 
specifically that you need to show a doctor's letter, slip, etc., with the 
test results"


"We don't use the tax deduction directly, but we have been approved to
buy gf food out of our flexible spending (pre-tax dollars) account.  All
we need to do is provide a doctor's letter stating this food is
medically required.  My husband (our tax guy) says it is not possible to
use it as a straight medical deduction, because the dollar amount
required to take that deduction is so high we would never meet it (and
we are feeding 4 gf folks)."






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