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Budget related to Disability Issues... Today
February 24, 2026
Delivering on Commitments: Response to the
Recommendations
of the Technical Advisory Committee
on Tax Measures for
Persons with
Disabilities
In Budget 2003, the Government
established the Technical
Advisory Committee on Tax
Measures for Persons with
Disabilities to advise
the Ministers of Finance and
National Revenue on
how to address tax issues affecting
persons with
disabilities. The committee’s final report
was
submitted in December 2004 and contained
25
recommendations. The Government wishes to thank
the members
of the committee for their valuable
contribution to this
important area of government
policy. The Government is
acting on the committee’s
recommendations. More
specifically, this budget
proposes to:
Extend eligibility for the
disability tax credit (DTC) to
individuals who face
multiple restrictions that together
have a
substantial impact on their everyday lives.
Amend
the DTC to ensure that more individuals
requiring
extensive life-sustaining therapy on an
ongoing basis are
eligible.
Clarify other
parts of the DTC eligibility criteria,
including
the provisions dealing with impairments in
mental
function.
Add physiotherapists to the
list of health professionals
who can certify
eligibility for the DTC.
Expand the list of
expenses eligible for the disability
supports
deduction, introduced in Budget 2004, to
include
costs such as job coaches, deaf-blind
interveners and
Braille note-takers.
Increase
the maximum amount of the refundable
medical
expense supplement to $750 from $571 per
year.
Extend, for DTC-eligible students, the
contribution period
for individual registered
education savings plans (RESPs)
to 25 years from 21
years and the lifetime limit of
individual RESPs to
30 years from 25 years.
Increase the maximum
annual Child Disability Benefit to
$2,000 from
$1,681 per child beginning in July 2005.
Increase
funding for the Canada Revenue Agency by $2
million
per year to improve its administration of the
DTC
and other disability-related tax measures, in
particular to
support the creation of a committee
to advise the Minister
of National Revenue on the
administration of these
measures.
Taken
together, these measures will increase tax relief
for
persons with disabilities and their caregivers
by $105
million in 2005-06, growing to $120 million
by 2009–10. The
changes will generally be effective
for the 2005 and
subsequent taxation years.
Tax Recognition of the Costs of
Caregiving
Many Canadian families face additional
costs related to the
care of a dependent relative
such as an elderly parent or
an adult child with a
disability. In Budget 2004, the
Government modified
the income tax rules to allow
caregivers to claim
up to $5,000 of the medical and
disability-related
expenses they incur on behalf of a
dependent
relative.
Building on that measure, this
budget proposes that the
maximum amount of medical
and disability-related expenses
that can be claimed
by caregivers be doubled to $10,000
from $5,000,
beginning with the 2005 taxation year. This
measure
is estimated to increase tax assistance by
$15
million in 2005–06, growing to $20 million by
2009–10.
This measure represents the first
step in the Government’s
broadly based commitment
to increase support for
caregivers. The Government
is working with the provinces
and territories to
develop a comprehensive caregiver
strategy
involving a range of different supports
for
spouses, children, close relatives and friends
who care for
seniors and for persons with
disabilities.
Disclaimer:
Eileen Reppenhagen CGA does
not research or endorse any
product or service appearing in ads
posted on this site.
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information on this website as a
basis for a course of action without
obtaining appropriate professional
advice
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