I am trying to find everything possibly that we can claim on our taxes and much is related to my disability and my child’s disability. Both me and one of my kids qualified for the DTC. I’ve already started an RDSP for me and have an appointment to set one up for the kid.
I am a fulltime student and my husband just started his own business. He has yet to take profit from the business but will be in the new year.
I have been reading the Canada.ca website and taxtips.ca both which have been helpful but I’m not clear on some things.
I have an attendant who does some personal care for me, does my laundry and the laundry for my child with the DTC. The attendant cleans my bedroom, my office, and my bathroom as well as my child’s bedroom. From what I understand this is all covered as well as some food prep (not groceries just the labour to prepare food).
Because we started out this year with no income, we were surviving off student loans, monthly child benefits and a small line of credit we put our spare rooms on airbnb and have brought in some modest income. The lady that does my attendant care cleans our airbnb rooms for us. I asked her to give me separate receipts (they include her SIN as required by CRA) for attendant care vs airbnb stuff.
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For attendant costs, do I have the option of claiming 10K plus the DTC or the cost of my attendant care expenses PLUS the same for my daughter? The one thing I haven’t asked our attendant to do is divide up receipts for me vs receipts for our child. Does anyone here know if CRA would accept simply dividing it in half so I claim half for me and half for our child? I will ask for separate receipts in the new year but for now there’s no way of going back and dividing up the receipts based on unknown amounts of time. It would be guesswork at this point.
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Caregiver amount: For the Canada Caregiver Amount Tax Credits I am really confused how this works. Can my husband claim it for me and our child as well? And what does the CRA consider an “infirmed” person? I can’t find a definition anywhere other than for a child, they rely on someone for daily care more than another child their age. My daughter absolutely requires more care and attention than our oldest did at the same age (ie my daughter needs help bathing and dressing herself and brushing her teeth… she can technically brush her teeth but it’s more like sticking the toothbrush in her mouth, brushing lightly, gagging and then putting the toothbrush away… her teeth don’t really get cleaned).
And what about me? I don’t consider myself infirmed and don’t even like thinking that way but I certainly need help with personal duties and don’t want to not claim infirmed if I can.
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I pay for a monthly pass for the handicapped bus to get to school. Can I claim this as a school expense or anything?
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The canada.ca website says:
Personalized therapy plan – the salaries and wages paid for designing a personalized therapy plan are eligible medical expenses if certain conditions are met.
The plan has to be designed for a person who is eligible for the disability tax credit (DTC) and paid to someone who is in the business of providing such services to unrelated persons.
The therapy has to be prescribed and supervised by one of the following practitioners:
** a psychologist, a medical doctor, or a nurse practitioner (for expenses incurred after September 7, 2017) for a mental impairment*
** an occupational therapist, a medical doctor, or a nurse practitioner (for expenses incurred after September 7, 2017) for a physical impairment*
The plan has to meet one of the following conditions:
** be needed to get public funding for specialized therapy*
** be prescribed by a psychologist, a medical doctor, or a nurse practitioner (for expenses incurred after September 7, 2017) for a mental impairment*
** be prescribed by an occupational therapist medical doctor, or a nurse practitioner (for expenses incurred after September 7, 2017) for a physical impairment.*
(from https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/rc4065/medical-expenses.html#toc6)
What specialized therapies are they talking about? Some would be obvious, like car accident victims needing therapy to learn to walk again but there must be a lot of therapies we are unaware of that we may benefit from.
I’m not even sure what else to ask. My husband has an accountant for his business, I deal with the bookkeeper there for questions like this but she’s so busy it will be weeks if not months before I hear back. Plus I feel better getting more information than what one person provides. Like getting a second (or third) opinion. I hope that makes sense.