Rev. Rul. 65-255

Advice has been requested whether the expenses of transportation incurred by a taxpayer, under the circumstances presented, in transporting his wheelchair-confined daughter to a public high school are expenses of medical care within the meaning of section 213 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.

The taxpayer's daughter is a victim of an incurable disease characterized by degeneration of the posterio-lateral and spinocerebellar tracts. Late in the disease the mental power becomes impaired. The disease has prolonged to the point where the taxpayer's daughter is now a helpless wheelchair patient. The progressive loss of her physical abilities has followed the prognosis of her case as given by the doctor and the hospital. If the entire prognosis is fulfilled her education will be of no value to her.

The child's doctor states that her attendance at the public high school is for psychotherapeutic purposes, namely: to keep her in school with children of her own age.

Section 213 of the Code allows, as a deduction in computing taxable income, expenses paid during the taxable year, not compensated for by insurance or otherwise, for medical care of the taxpayer, his spouse, or a dependent, subject to certain limitations.

Section 1.213-1(e)(1)(ii) of the Income Tax Regulations provides, in part, that deductions for expenditures for medical care will be confined strictly to expenses incurred primarily for the prevention or alleviation of a physical or mental defect or illness.

The term `medical care' means amounts paid for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or for the purpose of affecting any structure or function of the body, or for transportation primarily for and essential to medical care.

In the instant case, although the child could have received competent instruction at home under the public school system, the taxpayer's primary purpose for sending his daughter to a public high school is for psychotherapeutic reasons.

Accordingly, under the circumstances described, the expenses of transporting the taxpayer's wheelchair-confined daughter to the public school are expenses for medical care within the meaning of section 213 of the Code.