How do I use ExpenseBot to track HUD medical expenses and generate my recertification worksheet?

Using ExpenseBot for HUD Medical Expense Tracking

What is the HUD medical expense deduction?

If you live in Section 8, public housing, Section 202, or Section 811 housing and the head of household, spouse, or co-head is 62 or older or has a disability, federal law (24 CFR 5.611) lets you deduct unreimbursed medical expenses from the income your rent is based on.

Since HUD tenants pay roughly 30% of adjusted income in rent, every $1,000 you document in qualifying expenses reduces your rent by about $25/month — $300/year. Most tenants leave this money on the table because they can't pull the paperwork together in time for recertification.

What expenses qualify?

Any out-of-pocket medical cost not covered by insurance:

• Doctor, dentist, hospital, and therapy visits
• All prescription medications
• Over-the-counter medications and vitamins prescribed by a doctor
• Medical equipment (wheelchairs, oxygen, CPAP, hearing aids, glasses)
• Medicare Part B, Part D, and Medigap supplement premiums
• Transportation to medical appointments
• Attendant care and in-home nursing
• Service animal and ESA expenses — vet bills, food, grooming, and supplies for a service animal or emotional-support animal count as medical expenses under 24 CFR 5.611(c)(3). Most tenants don't know this. If you have a service dog or ESA, this category alone can add $1,500–$3,000 to your deduction.

How does ExpenseBot find my medical receipts?

ExpenseBot scans your Gmail daily and automatically recognizes receipts from pharmacies (CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, GoodRx, Amazon Pharmacy), doctors, dentists, hospitals, vision centers, and pet supply stores (Chewy, PetSmart) if you have a service animal. Each receipt is pulled into your expense sheet with the date, vendor, and amount — no typing required.

How to set it up (five-minute setup, then automatic)

1. Create your tags. Go to Settings → Manage Tags → ✨ Create a Tag with AI. Type "HUD medical". ExpenseBot builds a Health & Medical tag covering pharmacies, copays, therapy, dental, vision, hearing, and assistive devices. It also automatically creates a Pet Supplies tag for service and ESA expenses.
2. Catch up on past receipts. Run a historical Gmail scan for your recertification date range. ExpenseBot scans as far back as your Gmail goes — receipts from several years ago are still found and tagged automatically.
3. New receipts tag themselves. From this point on, every new medical receipt in Gmail is tagged automatically. You don't touch anything.
4. Generate the report. Go to Settings → Specialized Reports → HUD Medical Recertification, pick your date range, and click Generate. You get a clean itemized worksheet — grand total at the top, then every qualifying expense listed by date, vendor, and amount, with links to the original receipt in your Google Drive. The format is designed to hand directly to your housing coordinator.

What about Medicare premiums? There's no receipt.

The HUD report wizard has a field where you enter your monthly Medicare Part B, Part D, or Medigap premium. It multiplies by 12 and adds it to your total automatically. This is the most commonly missed deduction — Social Security deducts these premiums silently from your check so there's no bill or receipt. Your Social Security award letter shows the monthly amount.

My recertification isn't based on a calendar year

The wizard asks for your recertification appointment date and automatically computes the 12-month lookback window your PHA uses. You can also override the start and end dates manually if your PHA uses a different window. The report only includes expenses from that exact period.

Can I preview my rent savings before submitting?

Yes. Enter your annual household income and select your PHA's HOTMA threshold — ask your housing coordinator which applies to you:

• Pre-HOTMA / hardship exemption: 3%
• Year 1: 5%
• Year 2: 7.5%
• Year 3+ (new households): 10%

The wizard shows your projected monthly and annual rent reduction before you generate the report.

HOTMA threshold example

$18,000 income, $2,400 in qualifying medical expenses, 5% threshold = $900 net deduction = ~$22/month rent reduction.

Is the report destructive? Can I run it multiple times?

Completely non-destructive. Generating the HUD report never changes your expense data or marks anything as submitted. You can regenerate for any date range, including prior years, as many times as you want without affecting your current data.

Full guide: https://www.expensebot.ai/blog/hud-medical-expense-deduction-guide Tracker: https://www.expensebot.ai/hud-medical-expense-tracker