One of the many challenges of living in the North, besides shovelling tons of snow, is travelling south to obtain medical or dental services that aren't available in our communities.

Fortunately we are allowed to claim reasonable travel expenses if you have to travel to receive medical services.

Two sets of rules allow you to claim different types of travel expenses, as part of your medical expense claim, depending on the distance travelled.

You can claim transportation costs for airfare, taxi and vehicle if you travel more than 40 but less than 80 km to obtain medical services not available where you live. Generally you are expected to travel to the nearest city where the service is normally provided. For example, if you live in Tulita, NT, you are allowed to claim transportation costs to Yellowknife to get, say, a root canal because this dental service is normally provided in Yellowknife. In this same example, claiming airfare to, say, Edmonton wouldn't fly unless you are able to prove the specific service you need is normally not provided in Yellowknife (being the closest city to Tulita).

If the medical travel exceeds 80 km, which generally applies to all Northern travel, you are also allowed to claim other travel expenses such as meals and accommodation. Therefore, if you have to fly from Iqaluit to Ottawa to obtain medical services not available in Iqaluit, you can deduct your transportation and travel expenses, i.e., airfare, meals, taxi and accommodation.

You are allowed to deduct transportation and travel expenses for yourself and your attendant if your medical practitioner certifies you shouldn't be travelling alone.

To make your tax filing easier, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) allows you to use the simplified method. You would claim a flat rate of $17 per meal or $51 per day for food and a kilometric rate of 61 cents (for 2008) if you drive. Other travel costs such as taxi, airfare and accommodation must be supported by receipts.

Those are the basic rules. Let's look at a few real life situations.

If you live in Rae-Edzo, could you claim driving costs to Yellowknife - 100 km away - to refill your prescription drugs? Nice try, but you can't. The rules only allow for reasonable travel costs to obtain medical services, not prescription drugs.

Your medical practitioner certifies you have to travel to a warmer climate during the winter months because of your disability. Could you claim your airfare, meals and accommodations for the duration of your trip? When asked this very question in June 2008, the CRA responded you cannot claim those expenses because the trip isn't to obtain medical services.

You don't need training as a tax court judge to decide this audacious case. A taxpayer had to drive more than 80 km from Corner Brook, N.L. to obtain medical services. She couldn't travel alone and was accompanied by her spouse in the same vehicle. Using the simplified method, she claimed medical travel costs totalling $7,357 for herself as the patient. She then claimed another $7,357 for her spouse as her attendant.

The CRA said you can't do that - that's duplication - so the parties were off to the tax court. In Bartlett vs. The Queen, Tax Court of Canada, Sept. 4, 2008, the judge didn't dwell on the issue. He concluded the amount of $7,357 was paid once and it can only be claimed once.

Andy Wong, CGA, CFP, is a tax consultant at MacKay LLP, Chartered Accountants, in Yellowknife. He can be reached at: andrewwong@yel.mackayllp.ca.