Steuergutschriften für Behinderte sind für einige Kanadier von entscheidender Bedeutung. Aber die Beantragung kann Tausende kosten | CBC-Nachrichten
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/companies-charging-for-disability-benefit-assistance-1.7569518?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar
11 Kommentare
Interesting
According to my gp, qualifying is also very tough.
„Can’t use your left arm, just use your right side, no help for you Mr. „
Qualifying is not tough. The conditions are listed on the T2201. It may take time for CRA to adjudicate the claim but CRA will back date to when the doctor said the disability began.
The problem with DTC is that if your doctor doesn’t think you are disabled, you have no chance of even applying. In my case, I am severely visually impaired, except that while my left eye is legally blind, my right eye is only severely impaired, not yet legally blind (hence I am able to type without any special software). As I have said in other comments, my visual impairment is bad enough that I am not allowed to have a driver’s license. I am also autistic. Some government agencies recognize these to be disabilities (OSAP, for instance, does this and gives me grants).
Back in 2015, before the rule change, I tried applying for it and got denied. I didn’t appeal it because based on the rules in existence at the time, I probably didn’t qualify. When Trudeau was prime minister, the rules were changed. I tried applying (with the help of the same family doctor). He believed that I wasn’t disabled, so he refused to fill out the form for me.
Now, here is where I might run into a problem. Before I was fired from my job, I had employment income. But at the same time, I was receiving OSAP grants to go to school part time (grants that would only be available to disabled people). I do my own tax returns. Every year I have been in school, I checked Checkbox 32005 on my schedule 11 so that I can treat the OSAP grants as entirely tax-free income. I can technically do this, but it is a grey area under Section 118.6(3) of the Income Tax Act. I basically swear under oath that I am disabled and hope the Canada Revenue Agency believes my claim that I am disabled even though I have zero proof of that claim (as I do not, in fact, have a T2201 on file). I even called them and the agent told me to just file and provide information to them only if I am asked to do so.
(Of course, it would be nice to get DTC approved so that I can lower my income tax bill and get some RDSP grant money.)
The DTC advocacy companies are the absolute worst scumbags out there. Right up there with payday loan companies. Doctors are refusing to work with them because of how horrible and predatory they are. These companies are charging thousands for 15 minutes of work. Their entire business model is praying on the sick and disabled.
It is also incredibly easy to do and is getting easier every year. You pay your doctor to fill out the form and then you mail it to CRA or upload it on your online account. Thats it. There is even a checkbox on the DTC form asking CRA to automatically adjust all prior returns they apply to.
You can also go to your accountant if you have one and get it done for a couple hundred of one of the non profits which help people apply and do it for free.
The income threshold to qualify is brutal. If you make over $23,000 or $32,500 as a couple- you don’t get anything.
Edit: obviously this is targeted to lower-income individuals- it’s not enough.
Even receiving the disability tax credit is not enough. The lowest amount you can earn through this barely supports rent for a single person, god forbid suddenly becoming disabled and while having dependent-aged kids as well. So where are you supposed to live if you cannot work. If you can work, this credit basically no longer helps you at all since the income threshold limit to qualify is so low despite the fact that having a disability makes life inevitably more challenging and expensive than able-bodied people. The name of it itself is misleading because it doesn’t really help all disabled people. It doesn’t even help you maintain the life you had before becoming disabled and you can easily fall right through the cracks. It kicks in when an extreme poverty-stricken state is reached by disabled people to help maybe afford food, but barely a roof over their head, and does nothing to prevent them from falling to that state. It is entirely for survival and not nearly enough to actually live.
I’m finally getting mine done, hopefully back dated to 2018 when I became disabled from the head injury I have. Just getting a family doctor so I could get it all filled out was the problem for me.
Helped my dad with this paperwork. Took all of 10 minutes and a trip to the clinic along with an information sheet from the ileostomy and colostomy society on why the DTC was likely appropriate for him.
Sent in, credit granted.
I’m currently in the process of filing my appeal after being rejected with no rationale as to why. Fun times! 😣
My diagnosis is one of those insta-approve things, so it was trivial for me. That said, I’m sure a condition where the impacts are subjective would be different.