All eligible Canadians with disabilities are entitled to fair treatment when applying for the DTC

January 28, 2018

"Our government is committed to ensuring that all Canadians receive the credits and benefits to which they are entitled,” said the Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of National Revenue, addressing the new Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) at its inaugural meeting on January 24, 2018. “The expertise of the Committee's members will help the Agency better serve Canadians living with a disability. I look forward to seeing the recommendations brought forward by the Committee."

While the Government of Canada recognizes the importance of supporting persons with disabilities and their family members by ensuring they have access to all the tax measures to which they are entitled, it remains to be seen if the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is committed to administering measures for persons with disabilities in a fair, transparent, and accessible way.

In the meantime, there is an urgent need to address a number of systemic problems with the administration of the Disability Tax Credit (DTC).

• Remove the inflexible guideline that defines being markedly restricted in a basic activity of daily living “all or substantially all of the time” as being “at least 90% of the time.” The mathematical model is not an appropriate measure of disability for people living with mental disorders and other diseases with episodic manifestation of symptoms such as epilepsy, since there are no tools to accurately measure brain activity. Furthermore, such an arbitrary interpretation of the Income Tax Act:
  1. has no statutory basis;
  2. is not supported as a strict quantitative measure in CRA’s own policy document, Income Tax S1-F1-C2, Disability Tax Credit Folio
  3. is not recognized by the Tax Court of Canada as an absolute threshold in both DTC and GST cases.
• Remove questions in the follow-up “clarification letters” sent to qualified health-care practitioners that are not legal tests for the determination of eligibility for the DTC and are not relevant to the physical or mental impairment of the applicant.
• The CRA exercises the right to question some or all of the medical evidence certified by qualified health-care practitioners in Form T2201 and the clarification letter without providing a reason, valid or otherwise.
• The Notice of Determination disallowing the DTC is a form letter that does not always provide specific details of the basis to reject the claim.
• The CRA abuses the internal appeal process by withholding documentary evidence. Although the Notice of Determination may refer to the additional information in the follow-up questionnaire provided by the qualified health-care practitioner, it does not include a copy of this “clarification letter.” Nor does CRA inform claimants that they may request a copy of the “clarification letter” which may have formed the basis to reject the application for the DTC.
• The Notice of Determination no longer provides a booklet with detailed information how to appeal by filing an Objection with the Appeals Branch and if that fails, filing a Notice of Appeal with the Tax Court of Canada. This lack of full disclosure is unfair and unjust to disabled Canadians who are unable to afford legal counsel to protect their rights.

TAGS - DTC, CRA

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