Travel costs to the dentist can also be deducted as an exceptional expense.

The costs of dental treatment can be claimed as an extraordinary expense for tax purposes, provided the expense is extraordinary, unavoidable, and significantly impairs the taxpayer's financial capacity. The Federal Finance Court (File no. RV/2100366/2023 of 22 January 2026) had to address the question of whether travel expenses for dental visits in Hungary can also be deducted as an extraordinary expense for tax purposes.

Specifically, for several dental treatments in Hungary near the Austrian border, the associated costs as well as travel expenses (at the rate of the official mileage allowance) should be tax-deductible. The tax office refused to recognise the travel expenses with the argument that dental procedures are generally feasible near one's place of residence by local doctors (i.e. in Austria) and consequently the travel expenses thereto would be significantly lower. In accordance with general life experience, journeys to such distant dentists are not made exclusively for medical reasons, which is why they are not essential and therefore do not constitute an extraordinary burden.

In its decision, the Federal Fiscal Court (BFG) specifically considered the overall costs of dental treatment in Hungary and found that the expenses as a whole (dental treatment and travel costs) were considerably lower than the costs for comparable treatment in Austria (including correspondingly lower travel costs). Furthermore, in line with older Supreme Administrative Court (VwGH) case law, the travel costs are to be considered unavoidable, as the medical costs were also unavoidable (the dental costs have already been recognised by the tax office as an extraordinary burden).

Ultimately, the BFG aligned with existing VwGH case law, emphasising that it could not be considered appropriate to disallow travel costs for tax purposes (referring to voluntariness) when the taxpayer had decided to reduce overall costs by opting for treatment further away. Therefore, the travel costs were incurred necessarily and are tax-deductible (as an extraordinary expense with a deductible), as overall costs could only be kept lower by accepting a longer travel distance.

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