If you have medical expenses associated with a disability, you may be able to claim them to reduce your taxes.

Who is eligible?

If you have an impairment in physical or mental functions, you may be able to deduct the expenses that you paid in the year so that you could:

• work
• go to school
• do research for which you received a grant

Important to note that only the person with the disability can claim expenses for this deduction. The person must also be employed or carrying on a business, doing research or similar work that they are receiving a grant for, or attending a designated education institution or a secondary school where they are enrolled in an educational program. If you are not not eligible for the disability supports deduction then you or another supporting person may be able to claim the expenses as a medical expense.

For more information on medical expenses, go to www.cra.gc.ca/medical.

Which expenses can you claim?

See the list of eligible expenses for the disability supports deduction and any certification from a medical practitioner that may be needed.

List of eligible expenses
Expense	Prescription needed?	Written certification from a medical practitioner needed?
Attendant care expenses	See details	See details
Bliss symbol boards	Yes	No
Braille note-taker devices	Yes	No
Braille printers, synthetic speech systems, large print-on-screen devices	Yes	No
Deaf-blind intervening services	No	No
Devices or software	Yes	No
Electronic speech synthesizers	Yes	No
Job coaching servicesFootnote1	No	Yes
Note-taking services	No	Yes
Optical scanners	Yes	No
Page turner devices	Yes	No
Reading services	No	Yes
Real-time captioning	No	No
Sign language interpretation services	No	No
Talking textbooks	No	Yes
Teletypewriters	Yes	No
Tutoring services	No	Yes
Voice recognition software	No	Yes

What are the amounts you cannot claim?

You cannot claim amounts you or someone else claimed as medical expenses (lines 330 or 331) or amounts for which anyone was reimbursed or entitled to be reimbursed by a non-taxable payment, such as insurance. So if part or all of the cost of the eligible expense is covered by insurance or another program then you have to reduce your claim by the amount of any reimbursement you received.

However, the person with the disability can claim the medical expense on either line 215 or line 330. They could also split the claim between these two lines, as long as the total amount claimed is not than the total expense. Just remember that you can’t claim the full amount of the expenses twice

How do you calculate your claim?

Use Form T929, Disability Supports Deduction, to calculate your deduction. Do not attach Form T929 or your receipts to your tax return. Keep them in case they ask to see them at a later date.

How do you report the amount on your tax return?

Enter the amount from line 12 of your Form T929, Disability Supports Deduction, on line 215 of your tax return.

Expenses must be claimed in the same year they are paid. Unused amounts cannot be carried over to another year. If you don’t use it you will lose it.