Determining Deductible Expenses

The Department will determine which claimed expenses are deductible and their amounts. (A) Limitations on Deductible Expenses. The allowable expenses for medical care, dependent care, shelter and child support are provided in 106 CMR 364.400. Education expenses and the cost of doing business for the self-employed are income exclusions and handled in accordance with 106 CMR 363.230(D): Student Households and (J): Self-employed Households. (B) Types of Nondeductible Expenses. (1) No claimed expense is an allowable deduction unless the household makes a money payment for the service and the service is provided by someone outside the SNAP household. (2) Any expense covered by a reimbursement or vendor payment which is excluded from income, except energy assistance vendor payments made under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Act (LIHEAA), is not an allowable deduction. For example, if a household pays no rent because an excluded vendor payment is made to the landlord on behalf of the household, the rent expense is not an allowable shelter deduction. A utility expense which is reimbursed or paid by an excluded payment, including utility reimbursement from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Farmers Home Administration, shall not be deductible. (3) A medical expense or that portion of a medical expense that is reimbursed is not an allowable medical deduction. For example, if a third-party insurer such as Medicare reimburses a recipient for 80% of the billed expense, only the nonreimbursable 20% of the expense is deductible. If the household reports an allowable medical expense at the time of certification but cannot provide verification, and if the amount of the expense cannot be reasonably anticipated based on available information about the recipient's medical condition and public or private insurance coverage, the household shall only have the non-reimbursable portion of the medical expense considered when the amount of the expense or portion is verified. (C) Households With Disqualified Nonhousehold Members. Deductible expenses of households with disqualified nonhousehold members shall be determined in accordance with 106 CMR 365.500: Households Living with Non-household Members. (D) Budgeting Child Support Payments. Child support payments shall be budgeted prospectively in the following manner. For households with a history of three or more months of paying child support, average at least three months' payments (including arrearages), taking into account any change in the legal obligation, and use this average as the household's support deduction. For households with either no or less than a three-month child support payment history, estimate the anticipated payments (excluding arrearages) and use this estimate as the household's support deduction.