Medical Expenses Tax Offset: cost of purchasing and installing a fold down ramp to provide wheelchair access to a car

Do expenses incurred in purchasing and installing a fold down ramp to provide wheelchair access to a car qualify as medical expenses under paragraph 159P(4)(f) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA 1936)?

Yes. Expenses incurred in purchasing and installing a fold down ramp to provide wheelchair access to a car qualify as medical expenses under paragraph 159P(4)(f) of the ITAA 1936.

The taxpayer's spouse suffers from a physical disability, which affects their mobility, and as a result is confined to a wheelchair.

The taxpayer's general practitioner recommended that the taxpayer's standard car should be modified to enable the taxpayer's spouse to get into and out of the car while remaining in their wheelchair.

The taxpayer incurred costs in acquiring and installing a fold down ramp into their car. The ramp enabled the taxpayer's spouse to get into and out of the car whilst remaining in their wheelchair.

The ramp is of type manufactured and sold specifically to allow wheelchair access to a standard passenger vehicle.

Subsection 159P(3A) of the ITAA 1936 provides that a tax offset is allowable to a taxpayer whose net medical expenses in the year of income exceed $1500.

The medical expenses must be paid by the taxpayer in respect of themselves or their dependant. 'Dependant" is defined to include the spouse of the taxpayer.

The term 'medical expenses' is defined in paragraph 159P(4)(f) of the ITAA 1936 to include payments in respect of a medical or surgical appliance prescribed by a legally qualified medical practitioner.

Taxation Ruling TR 93/34 describes a 'medical or surgical appliance' as being an instrument, apparatus or device which is manufactured, distributed or generally recognised as an aid to the function or capacity of a person with a disability or an illness. An appliance is an aid to function or capacity if it assists or improves a person's abilities in performing activities of daily living.

Taxation Ruling TR 93/34 also provides that generally a household or commercial appliance is not a 'medical or surgical appliance' and that we need to look at the character of the appliance, not the purpose for which it is prescribed or used.

In Case D37 72 ATC 210; Case 7 (1972) 18 CTBR (NS) 33 ( Case D37 ), the taxpayer installed a chair lift to enable his paralysed wife to move from floor to floor in their two storey house. The Board of Review held that the lift was a medical or surgical appliance, finding that: ... it can be said that the lift was specifically designed to replace or alleviate an absent or impaired bodily function or medical defect and the use of which, in the commercial sense, is limited in normal circumstances to such replacement or alleviation...In appearance and function the chair lift in the instant case may be equated to an invalid chair which is normally designed to enable the patient to travel in a horizontal plane. Here the chair was specifically designed for the vertical...

The fold down ramp is an 'appliance'. It has been manufactured and sold as an appliance which will enable a person who is confined to a wheelchair, as a result of their disability, to gain access to a car.

It assists the person's ability to perform one of the activities of daily living, that is travelling in or driving a passenger vehicle. In these circumstances the fold down ramp has the character as an aid to the function or capacity of a person with a disability. It is similar in nature to the lift in Case D37.

The payment for the purchase and installation of the fold down ramp is therefore in respect of a medical or surgical appliance for the purposes of paragraph 159P(4)(f) of the ITAA 1936.