Disability Tax Credit: Getting A Second Chance

If you have applied for the Disability Tax Credit and were found ineligible, check again with your audiologist. You may have a type of hearing loss that the criteria do not account for, but with additional information could receive the credit.

CHS Ottawa audiologist Moneca Price was asked by a client to fill out a Disability Tax Credit form T2201. During the assessment, it quickly became obvious that the client was experiencing a significant disability because of her hearing loss. It also was clear that she was not eligible for the credit by Canada Customs and Revenue’s strict criteria.

Price checked off on the T2201 form that, yes, the client could understand a spoken conversation most of the time with the use of a hearing aid in a quiet setting and with no lipreading. Moneca then attached an explanatory letter of appeal to the response form.

In the letter Moneca described the client’s particular hearing loss and its impact on her daily life. In this case, the client had one “better” ear, suitable for a hearing aid, and a “worse” ear, for which a hearing aid would provide no benefit. The client was, therefore, stuck using just one ear, a major detriment for hearing and communication, especially in noise.

The letter brought the hoped-for results. With the day-to-day negative impact for this client clearly spelled out by the examining audiologist, Canada Customs and Revenue chose to override the eligibility rules and approve the application for the Disability Tax Credit.

Everyone's hearing loss is unique and it's at the discretion of the audiologist to determine if further information would be beneficial to your application.

This is not a CHS policy; its a discretionary decision to be made by audiologists based on clinical information.