2009/08/25

Tax relief for Irish coeliacs

FIONA REDDAN
Now is the time to get your receipts together and submit your claim for medical expenses

FOLLOWING a change in last year’s Budget, 2008 will be the last year that you can claim back your medical expenses at the higher rate of tax of 41 per cent. As such, now is the time to get your receipts together and submit your claim. But what expenses are eligible and how do you do it?

While you may know that you can claim back on expenses such as visits to a consultant, laser eye surgery and specialised dental treatment, the range of eligible expenses is actually wider than you may realise. Did you know for example, that coeliacs can get tax relief on the cost of gluten-free food? Or that visits to an educational psychologist also qualify?

Moreover, if you go to Northern Ireland for specialised dental treatment or to New York for surgery, the cost of your treatment will also qualify for tax relief, while if the treatment is available only outside of Ireland, then reasonable travelling and accommodation expenses are also allowable for the patient and an accompanying adult.

Tax relief at your marginal rate of tax (41 or 20 per cent) is available on all medical expenses incurred during the year that have not already been reimbursed by a private health insurer. Almost all expenses, apart from routine dental or ophthalmic services, are eligible to be claimed against, provided that the expenditure was for the provision of healthcare – “prevention, diagnosis, alleviation or treatment of an ailment, infirmity, defect or disability”, according to the Revenue Commissioners.

This means that treatments such as plastic surgery are eligible only when carried out on the advice of a doctor, not for cosmetic reasons.

Although there is no longer a disallowance of the first €125, or €250 for spouse and dependants, which used to be the case up until 2007, 2008 will be the last year you can claim at the higher rate of tax, with only one exception – nursing home fees. These will be subject to relief at the marginal rate for a further year, until January 1st, 2010.

So, for example, if you spent €5,000 on your health in 2008, and received only €2,000 back from your private health insurer, you can claim a refund on the remaining €3,000.

If you paid tax at the higher rate of 41 per cent last year, then your refund will be €1,230, while you can claim €600 back if your marginal rate of tax was 20 per cent. If you had no health insurance, then the refunds will be greater – €2,050 and €1,000 respectively.

If you are looking to claim against dental expenses, you will also have to submit a Med 2 form, which needs to be completed by a dentist. Although tax relief is not available for routine dental work such as scaling, extraction and filling of teeth, or the provision of artificial teeth or dentures, it is available for more specialised treatment, such as bridgework, root canal treatment and periodontal treatment. The extraction of wisdom teeth is also eligible for relief.

Relief is also available on the cost of drugs and medicines, up to €90 a month for expenses incurred during 2008. Anything over this is repaid by the Health Service Executive under the Drugs Payment Scheme. From January of this year, the rate has been increased to €100.

There are a number of ways of submitting a claim. If you are a PAYE worker, you can do so over the internet by logging on to the “PAYE anytime” section of www.revenue.ie. Alternatively, you can download either a Med 1 or Med 2 form from the Revenue’s website, fill it out and send it to your regional Revenue office along with evidence of payment of tax for that year such as a P60. If you are self-employed, you need to submit your medical expenses in your tax return form.

Tax relief can be claimed after December 31st of the year of the claim, and the Revenue will review claims for the past four years. So, if you think you may be due a refund for any year from 2004 (as claims are made on a preceding year basis, claims for 2005 will involve expenses for 2004), get working on your claim. But remember, up until 2007 the first €125, or €250 for spouse and dependants, of each claim was disallowed. Similarly, the total recoverable for prescribed medicines was €85 from 2005-2007 and €78 for 2004.

While you don’t have to submit receipts with your claim, be sure to keep all relevant ones for six years, as you will be requested to produce them should your claim be chosen for detailed examination by the Revenue.

Not all receipts have to be medically related either. If you are a coeliac, for example, a letter from your doctor stating that you are coeliac is generally acceptable, but you should also keep receipts from your weekly shop, itemising the gluten-free food purchased. Similarly, diabetic patients can get tax relief for specialist diabetic food, and while a doctor’s letter is acceptable, receipts from supermarkets for the purchase of such food should also be kept.

When filling out your form, you can claim expenses incurred not only by you, but also on behalf of a dependant or a relative such as your spouse, brother or sister, or child.

You can also choose whether you want the relief given for the year in which the payments were made, or for the year in which the expenses were incurred. For example, if you had treatment in 2008, but only paid for the services last month, you can choose which year you would like to claim relief for – ie, 2008 or 2009. Of course, with the ending of relief at the higher rate, it makes sense to claim it now for 2008.

And your refund cheque shouldn’t take too long to arrive. The Revenue deals with all online claims within five days, while paper claims take 20 days to be resolved.

ELIGIBLE EXPENSESE - YOU CAN CLAIM FOR:

Doctors’ and consultants’ fees

Speech and language therapy

Transport by ambulance

Educational psychological assessments

Maintenance or treatment in a hospital or an approved nursing home

Specialised dental treatment

Routine maternity care

In vitro fertilisation

Drugs and medicines

Hearing aids

Cost of gluten-free food for coeliacs

Calculate your refund

Laoise has a “Level 2 Everyday” plan with Hibernian Aviva Health, which gives reimbursements on a variety of out-patient costs.

In total, Laoise spent €4,320 for medical services or medicines during 2008. While Laoise also spent some time in hospital having her baby, this bill was paid directly and in full by her health insurer so is not included.

Having submitted her receipts to Hibernian, Laoise receives €790 back, bringing her total bill down to €3,530. She can now claim tax relief on this total, but not all her expenses are eligible. For example, baby massage is not a qualifying treatment, nor are the three fillings.

When these are discounted, Laoise’s total eligible costs are €3,400. As she pays tax at the higher rate she can receive benefit at 41 per cent. This means that she is due a refund of €1,394 from the Revenue. If she was to incur the same expenses in 2009, she would only receive €680 back, as she will only get relief at the standard rate of tax, 20 per cent.

Source: The Irish Times

2009/08/17

Candy Tree lemon lollipops

I must say I have never particularly liked lemon, and these lemon lollipops are really pure lemon - gluten-free, lactose-free and additive-free. Nothing to take away the taste of lemon enough to give you the impression you're not eating some solid, slightly diluted, pure lemon juice. But eventually I got used to them, and it's always good to have something which doesn't melt (well... doesn't melt as much as chocolate!) in the Seville summer heat...

But in spite of me being more of an orange-person (or a cheese & onion person, at that!), I think I would actually recommend these. The only thing is that the small local shop we got these from is closing down :(, so I don't really know whether I'll be able to get a hold of any more after (plus, the webpage isn't of much use...)

2009/08/12

Gluten-free in Japan

After all these years studying Japanese and wanting to get to Japan, now that it seems I may achieve my goal sometime in the near future, my main worry is food! I have been looking into it, and really have got nowhere. I know at least that Tamari soy sauce you can buy here in Spain (although quite difficult to find) is ok, but it seems to be Japanese don't really know what coeliac disease is... All I found on a forum is someone who read there were under 30 diagnosed Japanese coeliacs in 2006 (or was it 2005?). And the coeliac disease entry in the Japanese Wikipedia doesn't really have any links to anything useful in Japanese! I have found various posts in forums enquiring about where to eat gluten-free in Japan (especially in Tokyo), no-one seems to really have come up with a clear answer... except one Japanese person who said you can shop gluten-free in Natural House (and I'm afraid I'd already come to that conclusion thanks to an advert on a webpage... I'd be lost without Google ads!). The only problem is knowing what you can buy, as if it wasn't hard enough in your own language... luckily here's a video on youtube about forbidden ingredients....

2009/08/11

Dietary Specials

This is a brand which I really haven't seen much down here, since most of my food comes from the same supermarket, but as I say, Mercadona doesn't actually make specifically gluten-free products, they just mark the products which are gluten-free. Right now Dietary Specials is actually the only gluten-free make I can think of which is sold there (at least in my local one, don't know about Mercadonas in larger cities). And I must admit I think I've only tried their Corn Flakes, but, as someone who has grown up being a Corn Flakes addict, I must admit I'm really chuffed with this gluten-free version :). On the DS webpage they have a store locator, although I can't find Mercadona in it, so I assume it leaves out all supermarket chains. I just wish I could try those ice-cream cones...

2009/08/10

Eye-shadow

Yesterday I felt like putting on my favourite eye-shadows (by Deborah), but I just thought I'd check if it's ok just in case! Since I couldn't find anywhere on the web mentioning this make to tell me whether it contains gluten or not, (I suppose partially because it's so popular as a name in some parts of the world, and I'm not actually sure it's a well-known cosmetics brand) I spent about half an hour looking at the ingredients and searching Google for them, and came to the conclusion it's ok, so I hope I'm right!

2009/08/08

Better guide to eating out...

Apart from general information, recipes and news, I find the restaurant, shop and hotel guide at www.specialgourmets.com especially useful. A bit incomplete when it comes to certain parts of the globe, but hopefully some readers will start to fix that sometime!

2009/08/06

Good news for future coeliacs!

In the news today is a Spanish researcher, Itziar Zubillaga Azpiroz, from the Universidad del País Vasco, who has presented her Doctoral Thesis about genetic analysis, and how it can be useful for the diagnosis of Coeliac disease. After having studied 175 coeliacs in the Basque Country, the conclusions of the research were that it is not necessary to have an endoscopy to have the disease diagnosed, but a simple genetic study will tell us whether we have Coeliacs or not. Apparently the result of the technique (which I haven't seen explained in detail in Spanish media) is 100% certain when it comes to a positive diagnosis, although only 97% when it's negative. But surely her research will be of great help if it's applied to public in general (who knows if, and when, with the health system being the way it is).

2009/08/04

Gluten-free travellers

Ok, so this is a bit like my previous post, but a bit more general!

Once again, looking for what to do when one wants to eat out, and abroad (I wish!) I came accross the Gluten Free Travel Site . Although it is a good idea, specially the part with the gluten-free restaurant reviews, it could really be much better... but of course that also depends whether people bother to comment on the places they go! Proof is, nothing in Japan (isn't shabu-shabu meant to be gluten-free?), one restaurant reviewed in the whole of Spain and Portugal (and it happens to be in Portugal!), and, better than nothing, two reviews for Scotland. One of them being in Edinburgh, logically enough, and the other one being in... Oban! Although I suppose you really have to be quite careful with this reviews, as anything could have changed since the reviews, the restaurants may even have closed down...

One place I remember having being in Edinburgh a few years back was in Edinburgh. Vittoria Restaurant, I think it was called. Just a normal Italian restaurant with a huge sign on the door saying that there were gluten-free pizzas available, so we went there for my sister's birthday (she had recently been diagnosed). The rest of us ate normal pizzas, but some of us (those who live with her) tried a bit of her pizza, and that HAS TO be the best gluten-free pizza I have ever eaten. It would be interesting if someone reviewed that place, if it still does gluten-free stuff... (I think they also made gluten-free pasta... I think.)

Just looking on Google makes you
a) Want to open your own gluten-free restaurant (now, there may be a career for me there! :D)
b) Wish that people with restaurants featuring gluten-free food be more intelligent, pay Google a bit more for their ads, make coeliacs' life easier, and, surely get them a fair bit more business!

2009/08/03

Coeliac tourists in Spain


Being coeliac is a bit of a bummer, but when it gets really bad -and we all know it- is when it comes to eating out. When you go to a restaurant you can ask whether they have gluten-free food, and 90% of waiters and waitresses probably won't even know what gluten is.

It's so much harder to find gluten-free food abroad, specially when it's a different language (back to the case where you ask the hotel receptionist where you can buy food for coeliacs, and once again, no idea...).

If you're coming to Spain, you might be renting an appartment. If that's the case, it's easy enough. Just hop over to your local Mercadona supermarket, which has quite a variety of gluten-free food. Even if it's not special food, it is marked gluten-free "Sin gluten" whenever it can be eaten by coeliacs. Another place where it's relatively easy to find special food for coeliacs is in the supermarket of the department stores "El Corte Inglés". In this case, the normal makes aren't labelled (so, you either know Nestlé milk chocolate is gluten-free, or you start reading all the labels!), but they do have special lines of gluten-free food, from bread to pizza bases, some nice little cakes, quinoa flakes, their own brand of choco-krispies...

Now, I've mentioned the "Sin gluten" mark on Mercadona products... that's really easy to spot (here's an image of this symbol on a packet of microwave popcorn, not too good but better than nothing!). But this symbol is only used by Mercadona's own line of products. If you get something from another brand it will almost never have any symbol, although it may have something like the international gluten-free symbol and say something by "Controlado por FACE" (FACE is the Spanish coeliac association in charge of putting together the guide of what you can and what you can't eat, etc). And this symbol is sometimes VERY small...









As far as labelling goes, that's pretty much it. I believe that products have to (or will soon have to) clearly state when they contain gluten. The problem is, that ranges from "Ingredientes: harina de trigo" to "Puede contener trazas de gluten". Although usually everything is labelled in English too, so, if you know what you can eat in English, you're ok...

If you're going to a hotel it can be quite problematic, but on the FACE website there is a list of hotel chains (with the link to their websites) which have a stricter control over the gluten-free food they offer, although the site does advise that the hotel you chose should be warned in advance if you're a coeliac. Although you can also ask at other hotels whether they have gluten-free meals, I would say these are a safer bet.

Also in the same website, there is a (very short) list of restaurants where you can find gluten-free food, although the ones mentioned are actually chains of restaurants, and it seems to be that they don't serve food for coeliacs in all their branches (although I imagine they should in most shops in main cities). Just bear in mind that IKEA is usually out in the middle of nowhere, Telepizza is pretty much in every medium to large town, and VIPS restaurants are only in larger cities. Also, VIPS is actually a chain of restaurants and bars, some called VIPS, others not so obvious (check website for more information), but as far as I can see, it's not really possible to find out online which restaurants serve gluten-free menus!

And last but not least... it seems that FACE can supply the list of can / can't eat foods to any tourist, who can order by phone . Remember, for international calls, the Spain code is +34.




Joinin' in the coeliac party!

It's not that there's not any blogs about coeliacs out in the cyberspace, but are all coeliacs in the same part of the world? Luckily, even for a recently-diagnosed coeliac like me (I would kill for an ice-creaaaam), it seems to be that in Spain, thanks to the fairly good labelling-system in a major supermarket chain, there's not much of a problem. For food that is. But it's time to start freaking out when one finds out there can be gluten in soap, suncream, make up (probably also in that nice-scented lipgloss which makes you want to eat it?), teabags ... (??).

I have found many blogs out there which I will look for again, and add to my regularly-visited blogs list, 'cause thanks to these blogs I don't feel so lonely, and I have even found some info about Japan (where I hope to be in under a year, and where I haven't come accross any coeliac association :S). I intend not only to review products available in Spain, but also, when I have the kitchen all to myself and can experiment until I come up with something successful, I'll post it here!

See you all around!