You can claim medical expenses for any 12-month period as long as you didn’t claim those expenses on a prior return. For example, you can claim medical expenses from March to March on your return as long as you didn’t claim those expenses on your prior year's return.

You can claim these expenses for you, your partner, your child under 18, or your other dependant. Expenses can only be claimed once - if your other dependant has claimed a medical expense on their return, you cannot also claim it on your own. You’ll need to create a medical expense “slip” for each individual and indicate their relationship to you.

To claim your medical expenses, follow these steps:

1. Log into your Wealthsimple account
2. Select the Tax tab at the top of the screen
3. Select a tax return or start a new tax return
4. Click Manage tax forms and select Add tax forms from the menu
5. In the Add income tax forms search field, search for “Medical expenses”
6. Add the Medical Expenses section to your return
7. Fill out your medical expenses information

Understand what medical expenses can be claimed

In the table below, we have listed common medical expenses and whether or not you can claim them:

Additionally, the CRA has two great search tools that you can use to determine if your medical expenses are eligible.

• The CRA’s eligible medical expenses tool
• The CRA’s authorized medical service provider tool

Categories of medical expenses and their meaning

Below are categories of medical expenses that you may see when claiming them on your return: 

Quebec residents covered by a private medical insurance plan for part of the year

If you are a Quebec resident and were only covered by a private medical insurance plan for part of the year, follow the tips below:

1. Answer No to the question “Did you have basic prescription drug insurance through a group insurance plan throughout 2023?” in the About You section.
2. Answer Yes to the question “Are there any months of the year for which you don’t need to pay a premium?” in the RAMQ/Premium Payable Under the Québec Prescription Drug Insurance Plan (Schedule K) section.
3. Check off that “You were covered by basic prescription drug insurance provided by a group insurance plan of which you, your partner, your father, or your mother was a member; and this plan covered the cost of medications.”
4. Select the months that you were covered by a private medical insurance plan from the drop-down that appears for "Months that apply to the situations listed above"

Frequently asked questions

I have linked my return with a partner, why don’t my medical expenses appear on my return?

When you link your return to your partners', we allocate medical expenses to one of you based on the information you've entered in your tax returns at that point. Once you’ve both finished your returns and have run the optimizer, we’ll allocate them to the person who benefits the most from claiming them. If you like, you can change the optimization results.

Why do my Québec and federal medical expenses differ?

In Québec, you claim your Premium Payable under the Québec Prescription Drug Insurance Plan (calculated on Schedule K) as a medical expense for the year that you paid it (i.e. you can claim the 2023 premium on your 2023 tax return).

However, since the 2023 premium is paid in 2024, you can only claim it as a medical expense on your 2024 federal return. If you filed last year’s tax return using Wealthsimple Tax, we’ll claim this for you automatically on your 2024 federal return.