Last year, the Canada Revenue Agency held in-person and online consultations regarding the disability tax credit (DTC) program. PLAN and Plan Institute made a number of recommendations, including broadening the CRA’s definition of disability so it would be more inclusive of mental illness. And that it would be more in line with the legislation found in the Income Tax Act as well as typical provincial eligibility criteria. While we still hope to see advancement on this in the future, the results of the consultations placed greater emphasis on another recommendation of ours to have the DTC application form simplified. Based on a broad range of comments received across the country, CRA has announced a revision of Form T2201, Disability Tax Credit Certificate, and has created a new Information Sheet T2201-1.
Here are the changes:
Revised Form T2201, Disability Tax Credit Certificate (http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t2201)
- The form was shortened from 12 to six pages.
- Part A of the form
- Divided Part A into 4 sections
- Shortened existing Section 2, ‘Information about the person claiming the disability amount’
- Added a new Section 3 that enables the taxpayer to request an adjustment to their income tax returns if they are found eligible for the DTC
- Added a disclaimer on how an individual’s personal information may be used
- Part B of the form
- Added more space for medical information under ‘Life-Sustaining Therapy’ and ‘Effects of impairment’
- Added who can certify the form under each category of impairment
- Removed examples under each category
- Removed the chart identifying the basic activities of daily living and the medical practitioners who can certify the form
Created Information Sheet T2201-1, Disability Tax Credit Certificate
- Contains the instructions, definitions, self-assessment questionnaire, and the examples for each category of impairment
- As of January 2016, this information will be incorporated in the Guide RC4064, Disability Related Information, in order to regroup all the information related to persons with disabilities.
Improvements were also made to the application process since medical practitioners now have 45 days instead of 30 days to provide additional medical information when requested.