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American Morning

The Big Question: Should Your Diet be Tax Deductible?

Aired April 03, 2002 - 08:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Our Big Question at this hour, should your diet be tax deductible? The IRS just ruled yes, saying certain costs related to losing weight could actually be deducted from your taxes. But before you start shaving pounds, and with the hope of saving something on your returns, let's get the real skinny now from CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, who joins us now.

How are you doing this morning?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine.

ZAHN: So what is the significance of the story? I mean, first of all, they actually defined obesity as a disease?

COHEN: Exactly, a disease like any other. If you can deduct expenses for your arthritis, for you heart disease, for diseases like that, obesity is a real disease, and we should treat it like any other medical disease.

However, as Paula said, there are certain rules. For example, you can't just want to lose 10 pounds to look better for your high school reunion. That's not going to do it. Your doctor has to say that you are actually clinically obese. And let's take a look at what the National Institutes of Health means when they say clinically obese. Someone 5'4", and this is a man or a woman, 175 pounds or more, that would be considered clinically obese. Someone who is 5'10", 210 pounds or more, that would also be considered clinically obese.

Now the costs of the kinds of things that you do, your doctor has to actually recommend them.

ZAHN: So what exactly can you deduct once your doctor said you need to do "x" to lose 10, 20, 100 pounds, whatever it is?

COHEN: Well, the IRS didn't spell it out, so they left a little bit to the imagination. However, what they did say is that food is not deductible. So we know if you go out and get a bag of apples, you can't deduct that, or even a frozen Weight Watchers meal, you can't deduct that. Some of this will come out as they make their rulings and do their audits. However, we came up with a couple of costs that would appear certainly to be tax deductible, and we've looked at what they are. They're actually pretty high. For example, if you wanted to go on Weight Watchers for a year, that would cost $630, and that's not including the food. If you wanted to go on the diet pill Meridia, that would be approximately $1,000. If you wanted to go on the Duke University weight loss program for four weeks, that would be $6,000. So as you can tell, the costs can really pile up, and you can deduct them not just from the taxes that we're all about to file in two weeks, but you can go to 1998, and go to those returns.

ZAHN: Wow. So how many people will this really affect? Do we know percentages of Americans who will benefit from this policy?

COHEN: Forty million Americans, one out of five Americans is obese, and it's important to note, not every single medical expense is deductible. It has to exceed 7.5 percent of your income, and then you can start deducting these.

ZAHN: Wait, wait, wait, say that again, has to exceed 7.5 percent of your income?

COHEN: Right, you have to spend more than 7.5 percent of your income on all medical expenses put together, including those for obesity, and then what exceeds that 7.5 percent is deductible.

ZAHN: But when you look at the expense of a month-long program...

COHEN: Right, for four weeks at duke, that's a lot. That would exceed a lot of people's 7.5 percent threshold.

ZAHN: That's fascinating.

COHEN: Yes, a lot of money.

ZAHN: I know you'll get a lot of e-mail about this.

COHEN: I hope so.

ZAHN: Thanks, Elizabeth. Good luck.

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