Disability Tax Fairness Campaign
Justice is the foundation
of fair treatment for Canadians with disabilities.
Campaign Overview
Our campaign to reinstate the Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) to ensure that all Canadians with disabilities are entitled to a just result when applying for Disability Tax Credit (DTC) was successful. And yet, it seems that we have just begun.
The DAC was reinstated in November 2017 by Minister of National Revenue, Diane Lebouthillier. "Our government is committed to ensuring that all Canadians receive the credits and benefits to which they are entitled,” she assured us at our first meeting on January 24, 2018.
The creation of the DAC in March 2005 had led to an excellent working relationship between senior staff of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and stakeholders representing Canadians with disabilities. Although we made significant progress on a number of important issues, our committee was cancelled the following year. Since then, many of the improvements to the administration of the DTC have been all but lost.
Our committee made 44 recommendations in its first annual report Enabling access to disability measures issued in May 2019. Although a number of recommendations have been implemented, many Canadians with disabilities are still faced with insurmountable problems when trying to access the DTC.
- CRA continues to define "markedly restricted all or substantially all of the time" as being "at least 90% of the time" even though a significant body of case law recognizes that a mathematical formula is not an appropriate measure of the effects of physical and mental impairments.
- CRA requires qualified practitioners to complete questionnaires providing additional information even though some questions may not be appropriate for their patient's impairment or even a legal test for eligibility of the DTC.
- CRA gives clerical staff the authority to question medical information from qualified practitioners without providing a valid reason to deny the DTC. To make matters even worse, CRA is now denying the DTC to many applicants when they are asked to reapply for the tax credit, after 10, 20 years and more, including those living with severe and persistent psychiatric illnesses as well as other mental impairments such as autism.
Our committee continues to identify concerns and provide advice to the Minister of National Revenue to ensure that Canadians eligible for the DTC can access the income supports without having to appeal an unjust decision to disallow the claim.