Big news right now: the Canadian government has revised the federal budget, eliminating the eligibility of cosmetic surgery as a medical tax credit. Up to last year, Canadians who paid for breast augmentation, rhinoplasty, injectable fillers and other medical treatments solely designed to improve the aesthetic appearance of an individual were able to claim the costs for a medical tax credit. However, Jim Flaherty, the Finance Minister, has put an end to that this year (like the US did a while ago). This is unfortunate for the thousands of people across Toronto and the country who pay for cosmetic surgical procedures every year. Doing this will save the government an estimated $40 million.

Costs related to reconstructive procedures that repair congenital defects and problems resulting from trauma are still eligible.

This is bad news for Toronto based cosmetic surgery patients, since the HST is also going to inflate the final bill of treatments starting in July.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 8:18 am and is filed under Cosmetic Surgery and Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.