Health expenses are the most common claim on Irish tax returns. According to Revenue, nearly 261,000 people had claimed them on 2025 returns by early March 2026. Even so, plenty of people still leave money behind, usually because they’re not sure what counts.
How the relief works
You get tax relief at 20% on qualifying health expenses you paid during the year (Revenue overview). If you paid €1,200 between the GP, the pharmacy and the physio, that’s €240 back, as long as you paid at least that much income tax.
Nursing home fees are different: relief is given at your highest rate, up to 40%, and only on what you pay yourself, not the HSE’s Fair Deal share (nursing home expenses).
You can claim for yourself, your family, or anyone else, as long as you were the one who paid. Take off anything your health insurer, the HSE or a compensation payment covered or will cover. You can claim the part your insurer didn’t pay.
What counts
Revenue’s list of qualifying expenses includes:
- GP and consultant fees
- Prescribed drugs and medicines
- Routine maternity care
- Diagnostic tests a practitioner recommended
- Hospital and clinic charges, and ambulance
- IVF
- Physiotherapy, chiropractic and osteopathy on referral
- Psychologist or psychotherapist (conditions apply)
- Podiatry and chiropody
- Hearing aids and other medical appliances
- Coeliac and diabetic diets
- The pharmacy Common Conditions Service
Care abroad also qualifies if the practitioner is registered there, along with reasonable travel and accommodation if the treatment isn’t available in Ireland.
What doesn’t
- Routine dental: check-ups, scaling and cleaning, fillings, extractions and dentures
- Routine eye care: eye tests and glasses
- Cosmetic procedures, unless they correct a medical problem
Dental work and the Med 2 form
Non-routine dental work does qualify. That includes crowns, veneers, root canal treatment, implants, gum (periodontal) treatment, bridgework, surgical removal of impacted wisdom teeth and orthodontics (braces) (dental expenses).
Ask your dentist for a Med 2 form for each year of treatment. It’s a receipt, not a claim form: you don’t send it to Revenue, but you must keep it.
Treatment paid across two years
If you had treatment in December and paid part of it in January, you can claim it either in the year you received the care or in the year you paid for it.
Keeping receipts
You don’t usually send receipts with your claim, but you must keep them for six years. Revenue’s Receipts Tracker in myAccount lets you photograph and store them as you go.
How to claim
The old Med 1 form has been withdrawn. You now claim on your Income Tax Return in myAccount, either after the year ends or in real time during the year (how to claim). Each year is claimed separately, and you can go back four years. 2022 closes on 31 December 2026.
TaxRoots can gather your health costs for each open year and claim them alongside everything else you’re due.