AGI floor

The AGI floor is the threshold on Schedule A that decides how much of a year's medical spending actually counts. It is set at 7.5 percent of AGI. Only the portion of medical expenses above the floor lands on the medical line; everything below reads as zero.

An example. A household with $100,000 in AGI hits the floor at $7,500. If the household's total medical spending for the year is $9,000, only $1,500 ($9,000 minus $7,500) counts on the medical line. If total medical spending is $6,000, the medical line reads $0; the receipts are still real, the diagnosis is still real, the gluten-free premium is still real, but the math on the return is zero.

That mechanic is why Gluten Hero tracks everything medical, not just the gluten-free premium. Items, medical mileage, medical visits, prescriptions, dental, and other medical costs all stack toward the same floor. A household that itemizes might clear the floor on medical bills alone in a year with a procedure or a hospital stay; in a quieter year the gluten-free premium might be what pushes the total across.

The floor is annual. It resets every tax year. Spending that did not clear the floor in 2025 does not roll forward into 2026.

The 7.5 percent figure comes from IRC § 213 subsection (a). It has shifted in past Congresses (the floor was 10 percent for a stretch) but has been at 7.5 percent for several years running.

For the full Schedule A walkthrough, including how the floor interacts with the itemize-versus-standard math, read What Publication 502 actually says about celiac.