How to Claim Massage Therapy on Your Taxes in Canada
Here’s something a lot of people don’t realize: if you’ve paid for massage therapy from a Registered Massage Therapist in Canada, you can likely claim those costs as a medical expense on your income tax return. It doesn’t matter whether you have insurance or not. If you paid out of pocket (or paid the portion your insurance didn’t cover), the Canada Revenue Agency considers it an eligible medical expense.
That said, the tax benefit isn’t as straightforward as “you get it all back.” There’s a threshold you need to cross, some rules about what counts, and the actual savings depend on your income. Let me break it down.
What the CRA Considers an Eligible Medical Expense
The Canada Revenue Agency maintains a list of medical expenses you can claim on line 33099 (for yourself, your spouse, or your dependent children) or line 33199 (for other eligible dependants) of your tax return. Payments to a Registered Massage Therapist are on that list, but only in provinces where massage therapy is a regulated health profession.
Ontario is one of those provinces. Massage therapy is regulated by the College of Massage Therapists of Ontario (CMTO), and RMTs are recognized as registered health professionals. So if you received treatment from a CMTO-registered RMT, the cost qualifies. British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island also regulate massage therapy, so the same applies there.
Here’s where it gets tricky. In provinces where massage therapy isn’t regulated (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Nova Scotia), the CRA’s position is less clear-cut. The expense may still be claimable if a physician has prescribed the treatment, but the rules are murkier. If you’re in one of those provinces, it’s worth talking to a tax professional or checking the CRA website directly.
For Ontario residents seeing a CMTO-registered RMT, though, it’s straightforward. Your expense qualifies. No doctor’s prescription or referral needed for tax purposes.
The 3% Threshold: Why Not Everyone Benefits
This is the part that trips people up. You can’t just deduct your massage therapy costs dollar for dollar. The medical expense tax credit only kicks in on the portion of your total eligible medical expenses that exceeds the lesser of 3% of your net income or a fixed dollar threshold set by the CRA each year (for the 2025 tax year, that threshold was $2,759).
In plain language: if you earned $60,000 in net income, 3% of that is $1,800. You’d need more than $1,800 in total eligible medical expenses before you start getting any tax credit. If your only medical expense was $800 in massage therapy, you wouldn’t cross that threshold and the credit wouldn’t apply.
But here’s the thing. Most people have other eligible medical expenses too. Dental work, prescription medications, eyeglasses, physiotherapy, orthotics, mental health counselling: all of these count toward the same pool. When you add massage therapy costs on top of everything else, you may well cross the threshold even if massage alone wouldn’t get you there.
It’s also worth knowing that you can claim medical expenses for yourself, your spouse or common-law partner, and your dependent children under one return. The lower-income spouse should generally be the one to claim the expenses, since the 3% threshold is lower on a lower income, making it easier to cross.
What You’ll Actually Save
The medical expense tax credit is a non-refundable credit calculated at the lowest federal tax rate (15%) plus your provincial rate. In Ontario, the combined federal and provincial credit rate works out to roughly 20-25% of the eligible amount above the threshold, depending on your exact tax situation.
So if you have $3,000 in total medical expenses, your net income is $60,000 (threshold: $1,800), and $1,200 qualifies for the credit, you’d save somewhere around $240 to $300 in taxes. It’s not a windfall, but it’s real money, and it’s money you’d be leaving on the table if you didn’t claim it.
For someone with significant annual massage therapy costs, say $1,500 to $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, combined with other medical expenses, the credit can be genuinely meaningful.
What You Need to Keep
The CRA doesn’t require you to submit receipts when you file (assuming you’re filing electronically, which most people are). But they can ask for supporting documentation at any time, and if they do, you need to produce it. So hold onto your receipts.
A proper receipt from your RMT should include their full name, their CMTO registration number, the date and duration of each treatment, the amount you paid, and the clinic name and address. Most RMTs in Ontario provide receipts that include all of this. It’s standard practice. If yours doesn’t, ask for one. You’ll also want to keep a record of any amounts your insurance reimbursed, since you can only claim the portion you actually paid out of pocket.
Store your receipts for at least six years from the date you file. The CRA’s reassessment window is typically three years for most people, but keeping them longer is a safe habit.
How to Actually File the Claim
When you’re preparing your tax return, whether you use software like TurboTax or Wealthsimple Tax, or work with an accountant, you’ll enter your medical expenses in the appropriate section. The key lines are:
Line 33099 is for medical expenses for yourself, your spouse/common-law partner, and your minor children. This is where most people will claim massage therapy costs.
Line 33199 is for medical expenses for other dependants (an adult child, parent, or other relative who depends on you for support).
You’ll enter the total amount of eligible medical expenses, and the software (or your accountant) will calculate the credit based on your income and the threshold. If you’re using tax software, it usually just asks you to list each expense and does the math for you.
One thing to watch: you get to choose any 12-month period ending in the tax year as your claim period. It doesn’t have to be January to December. If you had a particularly expensive stretch, maybe you were recovering from an injury and had weekly sessions for four months, you can choose a 12-month window that captures the most expenses. Most tax software will optimize this for you automatically, but it’s worth knowing the option exists.
The Insurance Interaction
If your insurance covered part of your massage therapy costs, you can only claim the amount you paid out of pocket, the portion your insurer didn’t reimburse. So if a session cost $120 and your insurance covered $90, you’d claim $30 for that session.
If your insurance covered 100% of the cost, there’s nothing to claim on your taxes for that session. You didn’t pay anything out of pocket, so there’s no eligible expense.
This is why it’s worth tracking both the full cost and the insurance reimbursement for each session throughout the year. Come tax time, you’ll need the net out-of-pocket figure. Many insurance provider portals and apps now show your total claims and reimbursements for the year, which makes this easier to calculate.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Claiming the full amount when insurance covered part of it. The CRA will catch this if they review your file. Only claim what you actually paid.
Forgetting to include massage therapy altogether. A lot of people claim their dental and prescription costs but forget about massage therapy, physiotherapy, and other paramedical expenses. If you saw an RMT at any point during the year, dig out those receipts.
Not combining family expenses. Remember, you can pool medical expenses for yourself, your spouse, and your dependent children on one return. One spouse may have had dental work, the other had massage therapy, and your teenager needed physiotherapy. All of that goes into the same pool and helps you cross the 3% threshold faster.
Claiming treatments from non-registered practitioners. If your massage was at a spa or from someone who isn’t a CMTO-registered RMT (in Ontario), it doesn’t qualify. The CRA is specific about this: the practitioner must be a registered health professional in the province where the service was provided.
Is It Worth the Effort?
Honestly? If you already track your medical expenses and use tax software, adding massage therapy takes about two minutes. You just enter the amounts. The software handles the rest.
The real question is whether you’ll cross the 3% threshold. If your household has significant medical expenses (dental work, prescriptions, massage, physiotherapy, eyeglasses), you almost certainly will, and the credit is worth claiming. If massage therapy is your only medical expense and you only went a few times, you probably won’t cross the threshold, and the credit won’t apply. But it costs nothing to enter the numbers and see.
If you’re looking for a Registered Massage Therapist whose treatments qualify for both insurance claims and tax deductions, every RMT in our directory holds active CMTO registration. Find one near you.
Last updated February 2026. This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute tax advice. Consult with a qualified tax professional or refer to the CRA website for guidance specific to your situation.