Tax Provisions to Help Businesses Become More Accessible for Those with Disabilities

If your business is looking for ways to invest to increase accessibility for employees, customers and visitors with disabilities, there are two tax provisions that can help offset the cost of those expenses.

Disabled Access Credit

The Disabled Access Credit is a non-refundable credit for small businesses who incur expenses for providing access for people with disabilities. Eligible expenses include amounts paid or incurred:

• To remove barriers that prevent a business from being accessible to or usable by individuals with disabilities
• To provide qualified interpreters or other methods of making audio materials available to hearing-impaired individuals
• To provide qualified readers, taped texts and other methods of making visual materials available to individuals with visual impairments
• To acquire or modify equipment or devices for individuals with disabilities

For a business to be eligible for the Disabled Access Credit, the business must have earned less than $1 million or had less than 30 full-time employees in previous tax year.

Here are a few examples of expenditures that would be eligible under the Disabled Access Credit:

• Providing a sign language interpreter
• Creating Braille documents
• Building ramps for access

For more information about this credit, refer to Form 8826.

Architectural Barrier Removal Tax Deduction

The Architectural Barrier Removal Tax Deduction incentivizes businesses of all sizes to remove architectural and transportation barriers that can make accessibility difficult for disabled persons and the elderly.

As part of this deduction, businesses can claim up to $15,000 for qualified expenses for normally capitalized items. Businesses claim the deduction by listing it as a separate expense on their income tax return. As long as expenses meet the requirement of both provisions, businesses may use the Architectural Barrier Removal Tax Deduction and Disabled Access Credit in the same tax year. To take advantage of both provisions, the deduction is equal to the difference between the total expenditures and the amount of the credit claimed.

Here are a few examples of expenditures that would be eligible under the Architectural Barrier Removal Tax Deduction:

• Widening doors
• Building ramps for access
• Modifying vehicles

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