Deducting healthcare costs from your tax: what is allowed and what isn't in 2026?

What are deductible healthcare costs?

Deductible healthcare costs are costs for medical treatments, aids or facilities you paid yourself, so those not reimbursed by your health insurance or another scheme. They are costs that arise from illness or disability.

Important: you can only deduct the part above the threshold. The threshold depends on your threshold income: your income before deducting healthcare costs and donations. Only if your total deductible healthcare costs exceed this threshold, the remainder is deductible.

Which healthcare costs are deductible?

The Belastingdienst has a specific list of deductible healthcare cost items. These are the most important ones:

Medical and surgical care

• Treatment by a doctor, specialist or dentist, to the extent you paid it yourself and it was not reimbursed
• Treatment by a paramedic on a doctor's prescription, such as a physiotherapist or a health care psychologist (gz-psycholoog). Without a referral only under conditions
• Nursing in a hospital or other institution, to the extent you paid it yourself
• Note: mental health care and dyslexia care for someone under 18 are not deductible

Prescription medicines

• Medicines prescribed by a doctor, to the extent you paid them yourself and they exceed the statutory personal contribution
• Note: over-the-counter medicines (without prescription) are not deductible

Aids

• For example insoles, a prosthesis, a brace, or a bridge or crown on an implant. A hearing aid only under conditions
• Adjustments to your car, bicycle or computer because of your illness or disability
• Note: glasses, contact lenses, laser eye surgery, a wheelchair, mobility scooter, rollator or crutches are not deductible, and neither are aids covered by the basic insurance

Transport costs

• Transport to the doctor, hospital or pharmacy: €0.25 per kilometre by own car in 2026, plus parking; by taxi or public transport the actual costs
• Can you demonstrably walk no more than 100 metres on your own? Then you can deduct a fixed amount of €925 for extra transport costs, minus any reimbursement you receive for them
• Travel costs for visiting a sick person: only if you lived together at the start of the nursing, the person is nursed for more than a month, you visit regularly and the one-way distance is more than 10 km. By car also €0.25 per kilometre

Diet costs

• A diet prescribed by a doctor or dietitian. You deduct a fixed amount; which diets count and for what amount is in the diet list of the Belastingdienst (Dutch tax authority)

Extra clothing and bedding

• Do you have higher costs for clothing and bedding because of an illness or disability lasting at least a year? Then you deduct a fixed amount of €330 in 2026. If the extra costs exceed €660 and you can prove it with receipts, €825

Extra household help

• Household help you need because of illness or disability. It has its own threshold, which depends on your income. The personal contribution to the CAK for the Wmo or Wlz is not deductible

What is not deductible?

There is also a long list of healthcare costs people expect they can deduct, but that they cannot:

• The premium of your health insurance (basic and supplementary)
• The mandatory own risk (€385 in 2026) and the voluntary own risk
• Over-the-counter medicines (without prescription)
• Glasses, contact lenses and laser eye surgery
• A wheelchair, mobility scooter, rollator or crutches
• Healthcare costs reimbursed by the insurer or municipality, or covered by the basic insurance

The threshold: how much do you have to pay yourself?

You can only deduct healthcare costs to the extent they exceed the threshold. The threshold is income-dependent: the higher your income, the higher the threshold.

Without a tax partner the threshold is €166 for a threshold income up to and including €9,680; with a tax partner €332 up to and including €19,360. Above that it is 1.65% of the threshold income, and above €51,411 it is €848 plus 5.75% of the part above that.

Healthcare costs threshold 2026 by threshold income

For tax partners, both incomes count towards the threshold calculation, but so do both deductible healthcare costs.

Example calculation: what does it yield?

Suppose you have no tax partner, you are below the state pension age and your threshold income is €35,000. You paid for the dentist, the physiotherapist, medicines and transport to the hospital yourself. Because your threshold income is no higher than €41,123, the medicines and transport count 40% extra. You can then deduct €619:

Healthcare costs example 2026: threshold income €35,000, no partner, below the state pension age

* Indicative example calculation. The actual saving depends on your income, tax bracket and total deductions. We calculate this exactly for you.

Increase with a lower income, and extra at state pension age

Is your threshold income (with a tax partner: your incomes together) no higher than €41,123? Then you get an increase: part of your healthcare costs counts extra.

• 40% if on 1 January 2026 you were below the state pension (AOW) age
• 113% if on 1 January 2026 you had reached the AOW age. If only your partner has, 113% applies to both of you

The increase applies to medicines, aids, transport, diet, extra household help and extra clothing and bedding. Not to treatment by a doctor, dentist or physiotherapist, and not to travel costs for visiting a sick person. First the increase is added, then the threshold is deducted. The tax return calculates this automatically, but only if you enter the costs.

Chronically ill and disabled

Do you have a chronic illness or a disability? Then pay special attention to the fixed amounts: for extra clothing and bedding (€330, or €825 with higher costs), for a diet prescribed by a doctor or dietitian (according to the diet list), and €925 for extra transport costs if you can walk no more than 100 metres on your own. Keep the statement from your doctor or dietitian and the receipts; the Belastingdienst can ask for them.

How do you fill in healthcare costs on your tax return?

In the income tax return, healthcare costs are among the deductions, as specific healthcare costs (specifieke zorgkosten). You fill in per type of cost what you paid yourself:

1. Open your tax return via My Belastingdienst
2. Go to the deductions section and choose healthcare costs
3. Fill in the amount per type (medical and surgical care, medicines, aids, transport, diet, etc.)
4. The increase and the threshold are calculated automatically

Keep all your receipts, invoices and notes. The Belastingdienst can request evidence afterwards. Without evidence the deduction can be reversed.

Healthcare costs and tax partner

Are you tax partners for the whole year? Then you add up your healthcare costs, and also your threshold incomes, and calculate one threshold. You may then divide the deduction as you wish; it usually yields the most with the partner with the highest tax rate.

Healthcare costs missed in previous years?

Did you not declare healthcare costs in your tax return in previous years? You can still correct this for the past 5 years. We review your situation, calculate how much you can still get back and submit the correction for you.

For many seniors and people with chronic conditions, healthcare costs are the biggest missed deduction. With the 113% increase for people at state pension age, this can quickly add up to hundreds of euros per year. Get in touch with us for a no-obligation calculation.