Tax help for chiropractors and practice owners
We prepare returns for solo DCs, multi-doctor clinics and everything in between. English or Spanish, anywhere in the country.
Nothing is due today. Personal returns start at $250.
In a chiropractic practice you often treat a patient today and get paid by an insurer, an attorney or a payment plan months later. That timing gap, plus a dispensary that carries real inventory, plus equipment purchases that have to be handled as assets rather than supplies, is what makes a chiropractic return different from a general small business return. We start by understanding how your money actually arrives, then we build the return around that.
What chiropractors can usually deduct
Ordinary and necessary costs of your work. Rules and dollar limits change year to year, so we confirm every one of these against the current year when we prepare your return.
Adjusting tables and instruments
Drop tables, flexion-distraction tables, portable tables, Activator and percussive instruments, blocks and wedges. Reupholstery, replacement cushions and table repairs are ordinary repairs you deduct in the year you pay them.
Equipment can often be written off in the year you place it in service instead of over several years, but those elections are limited by your business income and the rules change from year to year. A large table purchase does not automatically erase a tax bill.
Therapy and rehab equipment
Ultrasound, electrical stimulation, cold laser, intersegmental traction, decompression and hydromassage tables, along with the rehab gear you actually use on patients: bands, balls, wobble boards, cervical traction units.
If you took a loan to buy it, the monthly payment is not the deduction. You deduct depreciation or a write-off election on the cost, plus the interest portion of the payment. Deducting the note payments on top of that counts it twice. A true lease is treated differently, so tell us which one you signed.
X-ray unit and compliance
The x-ray unit, digital sensors, processor, lead aprons and view stations, plus the ongoing cost of running it: state equipment registration and inspection fees, dosimetry badge service, calibration and physicist surveys.
Lead shielding built into the walls is generally part of the building improvement, not a supply, so it is written off over time rather than all at once. Keep that invoice separate from the equipment invoice.
Table paper, linens and scrubs
Table and face cradle paper, gloves, hot and cold packs, hydrocollator packs, kinesiology tape, massage cream, gowns, sanitizer, and the linen or laundry service that keeps the rooms turning over.
Scrubs and clinic coats are deductible because they are not suitable for everyday wear, and so is cleaning them. Regular clothes are not deductible even if you bought them for the office and wear them nowhere else. The test is whether the clothing could be worn in ordinary life, not whether you personally choose to wear it that way.
Malpractice and clinic insurance
Professional liability, general liability, a business owner policy, cyber liability covering patient records, and workers compensation once you have staff.
Your own health insurance is handled differently from the clinic policies. If you are self-employed it generally comes off on your personal return under the self-employed health insurance rules rather than as a clinic expense, and if you operate as an S corporation the premium has to run through your wages first to be claimed. Tell us how the premium is actually paid so we place it correctly.
License renewal and CE
State chiropractic license renewal, x-ray operator permits, the CE hours your board requires, association dues, and technique or certification training taken after you are licensed: Graston, Active Release, dry needling, sports or pediatric certification, plus travel and lodging to get there.
Chiropractic college tuition and the national board exams that first qualified you to practice are not business deductions. Education that meets the minimum requirements of your profession, or that qualifies you for a new one, does not qualify. Keep those records separate from your CE records.
Practice software and billing
Your EHR and practice management subscription, clearinghouse fees, an outside billing or coding service, credentialing help, appointment reminder texting, HIPAA-compliant backup and email, shredding and secure record storage.
Card processing and patient financing fees are deductible. If you receive a Form 1099-K, it reports gross charges before those fees come out, so report the gross and deduct the fees rather than reporting the net deposit as your income.
Supplement and orthotic inventory
Supplements, custom orthotics, cervical pillows, braces and supports you resell are inventory, not supplies. What you paid for the units you actually sold becomes cost of goods sold, and what is still on the shelf at year end stays on the books.
That means an actual count at year end. Selling these items at retail can also require registering with your state and filing sales tax returns, which is a separate obligation from your income tax return.
Staff, associates and CAs
Wages, payroll taxes, staff training and any chiropractic assistant certification your state requires, plus what you pay a fill-in doctor or an outside massage therapist. Contractors you pay for services generally get a Form 1099-NEC if they are not incorporated and you paid them at or above the annual reporting threshold.
Whether a CA, associate DC or massage therapist is an employee or a contractor turns on how the work is actually controlled, not on what the agreement says. Setting their hours, assigning their patients and supplying the room and table all point toward employee.
Clinic rent and build-out
Office rent and common area charges, utilities, answering service, security monitoring, and the treatment room partitions, cabinetry and signage you paid for in a leased space.
Rent comes off as you pay it. Build-out and permanent improvements are capitalized and written off over time, though certain improvements to leased nonresidential space can qualify for faster treatment. Keep contractor invoices out of the rent account.
Driving between work locations
Miles from the clinic to a second location the same day, to a health fair or corporate screening, to a nursing home or on-site visit, to the bank, and to a CE seminar. You can use either the IRS standard mileage rate in effect for that year or your actual vehicle costs.
Home to the clinic and back is commuting and is not deductible, no matter how far you drive or how early you open. Trips between work locations during the day are the deductible ones. If you have a qualifying home office the analysis can change, so tell us about it rather than assuming either way.
Home office for charting
If you do your notes, billing and practice bookkeeping in a space at home, a share of rent or mortgage interest, utilities, insurance and internet may be deductible.
The space has to be used regularly and only for the practice, so a den with a guest bed does not qualify. It also has to be your principal place of business, which fails if you carry out that same administrative work at the clinic. If your practice is an S corporation, this is handled as a reimbursement through the company rather than as a deduction on your own return.
A solo chiropractor with no staff is usually fine filing a Schedule C, but once you add payroll, an associate doctor, a building you own, or profit that sits well above what you would pay someone else to do your clinical work, an S corporation or a two-entity structure is worth pricing out.
What to bring us
You do not need all of it to start. Send what you have and your checklist shows what is still open.
- Year-end profit and loss and balance sheet from your bookkeeping, plus all twelve bank and merchant statements
- Any Form 1099-K from your card processors or a patient financing company, and any Form 1099-NEC or Form 1099-MISC you received
- A payer or production report showing billed charges against what was actually collected for the year
- List of equipment bought during the year with the date it was placed in service, the cost and the invoice: tables, laser, x-ray, decompression
- Loan, lease and financing documents for equipment, the practice itself and the office space
- Year-end count of supplements, orthotics, pillows and supports still on the shelf, with your cost per unit
- Payroll reports, copies of the Forms W-2 and the Form W-3 you filed, and any Form 1099-NEC you issued to contractors
- Mileage log or app export showing total miles and business miles for the year
- Health insurance premiums you paid and any retirement plan contributions made for yourself or staff
- Last year's tax return and a list of estimated tax payments with the dates you paid them
What trips people up
Deducting insurance write-offs and contractual adjustments as a bad debt.
If you are on the cash method you only report money that actually came in, so the amount a payer never paid was never income to begin with. Deducting it again would count it twice. Report what you collected, not what you billed.
Putting the CA, the associate and the massage therapist all on a 1099 to keep payroll simple.
Look at how the work is really controlled. If you set the schedule, assign the patients and supply the table and the room, that person is likely an employee. Correcting it before a state or federal audit costs less than correcting it after.
Running supplement and orthotic purchases straight through supplies.
Count what is on the shelf at year end and move the rest to cost of goods sold. The same count tells you whether the dispensary is actually earning anything, which is worth knowing on its own.
Buying a decompression table in December because someone said it zeroes out the tax bill.
The write-off is limited by your business income and by rules that change, and the equipment has to be placed in service and ready for use by year end, not just ordered. Ask what the real effect would be before you sign the order, not in March when nothing can be changed.
No mileage log, then reconstructing a number at tax time.
Use an app or a notebook in the car. Dates, destinations and business purpose are what hold up under review. A round number written in April does not.
What it costs
Our published list, the same one everyone sees. Prices marked "from" are starting points, and your exact number is confirmed in writing before any work begins.
$0 is due today. You pay when you sign, or you can have your fee come out of your refund, so it can be $0 out of pocket.
Questions we get from your trade
Can I deduct the drive from my house to the clinic?+
Generally no. That is commuting, and it stays personal even though you own the practice and even if you are carrying supplies. What is deductible is the clinic to a screening, to a second location, to a patient's home, to the bank or to a seminar. A qualifying home office can change the analysis, so mention it. Keep a log and we will use it.
My personal injury cases pay a year or two after I treat the patient. When is that income?+
On the cash method, in the year you receive the payment, not the year you provided the care. Letter of protection and lien cases can sit for a long time, which can mean a thin year on paper followed by a heavy one. We plan estimated payments around that pattern instead of letting it catch you off guard.
I sell supplements and orthotics. Is that just another expense line?+
No, it is inventory. You deduct the cost of the units you actually sold, and the rest carries into next year, so we need a year-end count. Selling at retail can also mean registering and filing for state sales tax, which is separate from your income tax return.
Should my practice be an S corporation?+
It can make sense once profit is steady and clearly more than what you would pay someone else to do your clinical work, because wages and profit are taxed differently. It also brings payroll, a separate return and a reasonable compensation position you have to be able to defend. We look at your actual numbers first, and sometimes the answer is not yet.
Can I write off chiropractic college?+
The tuition and the boards that first got you licensed are not business deductions, because education that meets the minimum requirements of a profession or qualifies you for a new one does not qualify. Student loan interest may help on your personal return under its own rules. Once you are licensed, CE and technique certifications are deductible.
Do you work with chiropractors outside Florida?+
Yes. We are in Coral Gables and prepare federal and state returns for clients around the country, in English or Spanish. Documents move through a secure portal, so you do not need to be local to work with us.
Let us take the tax part off your plate.
Tell us what you need and see your price. A real person on your team replies within one business day.