It is one of the most frequent questions on E-Fatura, so we explain in detail how to do it. Find out, then, how to associate income to the invoice to have a greater benefit at the IRS.
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If you have recently incurred a health expense for which you have a medical prescription, the best thing to do is visit the E-Fatura portal. You are likely to have to associate the respective prescription to the health bill in order to validate it. Failure to do so may result in the loss of the maximum IRS tax benefit.
Health is one of the categories that allow collection deductions. You can deduct 15% of the total amount of your health expenses up to a limit of 1000 euros. But not all healthcare expenses are created equal.
Services and goods that are taxed at the normal VAT rate, such as contact lenses, for example, can only be considered in this category if they have a medical prescription. In such cases, it is necessary to go to the E-Fatura portal and associate the respective prescription to the invoice.
Why is it important to link the recipe to the invoice?
All the expenses you make and for which you request an invoice with NIF enter the E-Fatura portal. But while some are automatically registered in the respective categories, others are pending and awaiting confirmation.
For health expenses taxed at 6% or exempt from VAT, registration on the portal, under the classification “health expenses”, is automatic. The same does not happen in expenses with VAT at 23%, which remain pending.
In order for it to be considered a health expense, the taxpayer must validate the invoice and associate the respective revenue to that expense.
What happens if I don’t associate the recipe?
Finance considers that 15% of all health costs, regardless of whether or not they are exempt from VAT, up to a limit of one thousand euros can be deducted from IRS.
This means that you have this limit to fill, just with health expenses. However, even when dealing with medical prescriptions, services and products with VAT at 23% will only be considered by the system as expenses in that category after validation.
If you have a recipe and you don’t associate it, what will happen is that it will miss the opportunity to see these expenses deducted as a health expense.
If you don’t associate the recipe or if you don’t do anything, they will remain in the “general and family expenses” which have a limit of 250 euros. Now, if you have expenses in that category that exceed this limit, all other expenses will not be considered.
You may therefore be giving up a larger IRS refund (in case you receive it) or disbursing less money at the end of the year (in case you have to pay IRS).
How to associate the prescription to the health bill and validate it?
Step 1
Consult pending expenses
By accessing your private area of E-Fatura, you will immediately see if you have pending invoices, that is, those that have not yet entered the system and, therefore, are not being counted for deduction purposes under IRS rules.
Furthermore, when there are invoices that include health expenses at the normal VAT rate, a warning message appears, giving you the option to “Associate Revenue”. You must click on this box to associate the recipe with the respective invoice.
step 2
Associate recipe and indicate the value
You will then see a table with information on invoices that include health expenses, namely the merchant who issued the invoice, the document number and date of issue, as well as the amount of expenses. at the standard VAT rate (23%).
In the last column of the table, you are asked if you have a medical prescription that justifies this expense. If you answer yes, you will have to indicate the value. And what value is this?
Let’s assume that you have a medicine bill, associated with a medical prescription, which totals 100 euros. However, only 50 euros of that invoice relate to medicines subject to the 23% rate. So, this is the value that you must fill in the corresponding column, in the E-Invoice.
If there is no medical justification, you must choose “no”, this expense being automatically considered as a deduction for general family expenses.
After associating the recipe and specifying the amount of the invoice covered by the recipe, click on “save”.
Examples of deductible health expenses, but only with income
Glasses and contact lenses
Expenses with eyeglasses and contact lenses can be considered health expenses and deducted from the IRS, but only if prescribed by ophthalmologists or optometrists. In this case, the expense with these means of visual correction has to be proven by the medical prescription (prescription) and the optician’s invoice.
And the sunglasses? They are also deductible as a health expense, provided they are prescribed by a doctor.
Alternative medicines and treatments
Alternative medicines, such as acupuncture, naturopathy, osteopathy, can be registered in the E-Fatura, provided they are prescribed by a professional with a certificate issued by the Central Administration of Health Systems.
You must add the respective prescription to your invoice with the expense of treatments or medicines.
To retain and not forget
You can deduct from your IRS 15% of the value of health expenses, up to a maximum of 1000 euros, provided that the invoices that prove them have your NIF and are issued in establishments in the health area.
In the event that health expenses have been incurred in the supermarket, when buying a cream or medicine, for example, care must be taken to ask for a separate invoice.
Health expenses without VAT or with 6% VAT are automatically entered in the E-Fatura portal as health expenses. Health expenses with 23% VAT require validation and the association of a prescription.
Until validated, these invoices remain pending on the E-Fatura portal. If you cannot justify them with the respective medical prescription, they automatically enter the “general family expenses” field.
If you have a medical prescription, you can associate it and these expenses will be considered health expenses.
Lastly, never forget to associate tax number to these invoices. Only then will they appear on the E-Fatura portal and you will be able to enjoy the IRS deduction.
Article originally published in October 2019. Last updated in December 2022.
