Disability amount (DTC) - tax cut
If you checked the box on the form that asks if you would like your taxes to be automatically reassessed, you don’t need to do anything. They will do it all (only ten years back) automatically.You CAN adjust your taxes yourself - but please don’t ask me how because I do DTC applications - not taxes. (clueless on taxes)
Canada Caregiver Credit (CCC) - tax cut
This was previously three separate credits for different age groups that have been combined into one as of 2017. The prior credits were put into place in 2012.You need to write a simple request to have them reassess your taxes to include the Canada Caregiver Credit or equivalent, to the applicable years you’ve been approved for.A person can claim the Canada Caregiver Credit EVEN IF THEY HAVE NOT BEEN APPROVED FOR THE DTC providing they can provide proof from the doctor their dependent has a disability IF ASKED. If you apply this to your taxes and down the road they ask for proof and you don’t have it, you will have to pay it all back, so it is CRITICAL you have supporting documents to provide at any time.
Child Disability Benefit - tax benefit paid monthly
Added to Canada Child Benefit and paid together (one deposit)Current max amount monthly is $230. It is income based so if you are a high-income earner it won’t be $230 per month it will be lower.It was not always $230 so if you have been approved for several years, you cannot calculate $230 times the number of months of approval and be accurate. The amounts have increased every year since its inception.If you are the person receiving the CCB but you’ve named your spouse as the person who should claim the disability amount, THE CDB WILL STILL BE SENT TO YOU. They will back pay a max of ten years. This does not mean 120 months unfortunately due to when they begin payout for each tax year. They calculate CDB July to June. If you’re going back ten years you will not get the months prior to July for the first year. You CANNOT ask to be paid from birth if you were not approved from birth (or if birth was more than ten years back). If you feel your application should have been approved from birth and it wasn’t, you MUST GO BACK TO YOUR DOCTOR FOR A DETAILED LETTER AS TO THE DATE YOU’D LIKE TO BE APPROVED FROM AND THE REASONS WHY IT IS A LEGITIMATE CLAIM.They will automatically calculate and payout the current and prior two tax years. YOU NEED TO REQUEST ANYTHING FURTHER BACK.
IMPORTANT NOTES
It is important to understand that just because your application has been approved for a set number of years, or indefinite, it doesn’t mean you are guaranteed to have it play out that way. Most of the time it does BUT Canada Revenue can choose to “review” your case anytime they want. “REVIEW” means cut you off with no warning and expect you to reapply. This personally happened to me with two of my children, one who had just been renewed 6 months prior.
I don’t mention this to scared people - it’s just important to check your account every now and then to ensure they haven’t taken the liberty of changing your approval dates or cutting you off.
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