The Disability Tax Credit: How to Apply in 2026

Last updated: 20 August 2026. Amounts, forms and CRA processes change. Every figure below names the government page it comes from and the date that page was checked. Confirm anything you plan to rely on with the Canada Revenue Agency before you act on it.

The Disability Tax Credit does more than reduce tax. It is the gate. The Canada Disability Benefit runs through it. The Registered Disability Savings Plan runs through it. The Child Disability Benefit runs through it. Approval opens several doors at once, and a rejection closes all of them together.

Two things changed in 2026, and both have hard deadlines. This page covers what the credit is worth, who qualifies, how to fill out Form T2201 without getting it returned, and what those deadlines mean.

This is factual reporting on a government program. It is not tax, financial or legal advice. Nobody here can tell you whether you qualify or how to describe your own impairment.

Two 2026 CRA changes, both now in force

The CRA changed how DTC applications are submitted this summer (CRA tax tip, “Help speed up your disability tax credit application”, 16 June 2026, checked 10 August 2026).

From 14 July 2026: you can no longer use the “submit documents” section of your CRA account to send DTC applications or related documents, unless the CRA specifically asked you for more information on an existing case. Applications now go through the digital DTC form or by mail. Nothing else.

Since 8 September 2026: the CRA no longer accepts older versions of Form T2201 from before 2023. If your form is a pre-2023 version, it will not be processed, and you will have to submit a new application. Download the current version (23e or 23f) fresh from canada.ca rather than reusing a saved copy or one a clinic has on file. On canada.ca the English form is coded 23e and the French form is coded 23f, so on the English page 23e is the code you are looking for (CRA, Form T2201 form pages, English and French, checked 10 August 2026).

That second one is easy to miss. If a practitioner hands you a form, check the version code in the corner before anyone signs anything.

What the credit is worth

The DTC is a non-refundable tax credit. It reduces income tax owing. It is not a payment, and if you owe no tax there is nothing for it to reduce, which is exactly why unused amounts can be transferred.

Disability amounts for the 2025 tax year (CRA, Claiming the credit, page updated 20 January 2026, checked 10 August 2026):

• 18 and older on the last day of the year: $10,138.
• Under 18 on the last day of the year: $10,138 base plus $5,914 supplement for children, which is $16,052.

Disability amounts for the 2026 tax year (CRA, Indexation adjustment for personal income tax and benefit amounts, page updated 12 March 2026, checked 10 August 2026):

• Disability amount, 2026 tax year: $10,341.
• Supplement for children with disabilities, 2026 tax year, maximum: $6,032.
• The two added together: $16,373.

You claim the 2026 amounts on the return you file in 2027. The CRA has published the indexed 2026 amounts on its indexation chart, but its Claiming the credit page still sets out worked amounts for the 2025 tax year only, so 2025 is the year to use for the return you file this spring.

Those are the amounts you enter on your return, not the amount of tax you save. Here is the number that answers the question.

A non-refundable credit is worth the amount you claim multiplied by the lowest federal personal income tax rate. Finance Canada says so directly: the credit rate applied to most non-refundable credits, the disability amounts among them, “is legislatively based on the lowest personal income tax rate”. That rate has moved. Bill C-4 cut it from 15 per cent to 14.5 per cent for the 2025 tax year, and to 14 per cent for 2026 and later years (Department of Finance Canada, Report on the Impact of Reducing the Lowest Marginal Personal Income Tax Rate on Non-Refundable Tax Credits, June 2026, page updated 29 July 2026, checked 11 August 2026).

Run those together and you get the following, which is our own arithmetic from the published amounts and the published rates, not a figure the CRA prints:

• 2025 tax year, adult: $10,138 at 14.5 per cent is about $1,470 off federal tax payable.
• 2025 tax year, child under 18: $16,052 at 14.5 per cent is about $2,328.
• 2026 tax year, adult: $10,341 at 14 per cent is about $1,448.
• 2026 tax year, child under 18: $16,373 at 14 per cent is about $2,292.

Provincial and territorial disability amounts sit on top of those and vary by province. The 15 per cent figure that circulated for years is the pre-2025 rate, so for almost everyone a calculation still using it is running high. One narrow exception exists and it will not apply to most people reading this. Finance Canada reports that a temporary Top-Up Tax Credit, in place for the 2025 to 2030 tax years, “effectively maintains the current 15 per cent rate for non-refundable tax credits claimed on amounts in excess of the first income tax bracket threshold” ($58,523 in 2026), and that fewer than 0.3 per cent of tax filers are in that position (Department of Finance Canada, Report on the Impact of Reducing the Lowest Marginal Personal Income Tax Rate on Non-Refundable Tax Credits, page updated 29 July 2026, checked 14 August 2026).

One limit on all of it. The credit is non-refundable, so it can only reduce tax you actually owe. If you owe less than the credit is worth, the rest is not paid out to you. That is exactly why the unused part can be transferred to a supporting family member.

Amounts for the past ten years, which matter because approval can be backdated (CRA, Claiming the credit, page updated 20 January 2026, checked 10 August 2026):

A caution on the 2021 supplement. The CRA prints this ten-year table twice on the same page, and the two copies disagree on one cell. The first copy shows the 2021 supplement for children as $5,053. The second copy, under the heading “Amounts you may claim for the past 10 years”, shows $5,003. Every other year is identical in both copies. We cannot tell you which figure is right, so confirm the 2021 supplement with the CRA (1-800-959-8281) before you use it on a T1 adjustment request (CRA, Claiming the credit, page updated 20 January 2026, checked 10 August 2026).

If you were eligible in past years but never claimed, you may be able to claim back up to ten years. That can produce a real refund. If you did not tick the box on the application asking the CRA to adjust your previous returns, you can either write to the CRA to request the adjustments or change the returns yourself online.

Who is eligible

A medical practitioner has to certify that you have a severe and prolonged impairment in physical or mental functions. There are three routes to approval (CRA, Who is eligible, page updated 18 June 2026, checked 10 August 2026).

Route 1: a marked restriction in one category

The categories are walking, mental functions, dressing, feeding, eliminating (bowel or bladder functions), hearing, speaking, and vision.

“Marked restriction” has a specific meaning at the CRA, and it is stricter than most people expect:

• you are unable to do the activity, or it takes you three times longer than someone of similar age without the impairment, even using appropriate therapy, medication and devices
• the restriction is present all or almost all of the time, which the CRA generally reads as at least 90 per cent
• it has lasted, or is expected to last, for a continuous period of at least 12 months

The “even with devices” wording trips people up. Reading the CRA’s criterion plainly, a device that removes the restriction would mean the restriction is not marked, and a device that helps but leaves you three times slower would not. That is our reading of the CRA’s wording, not a rule the CRA publishes and not a decision we can make for you. Put it to your practitioner and to the CRA.

Route 2: life-sustaining therapy

This route is counted differently from the others, and the difference matters. It is not about what the impairment stops you doing. It is about how much of your week the therapy takes.

The therapy has to support a vital function. The CRA’s examples are dialysis, insulin therapy, oxygen therapy, chest physiotherapy and other therapies. Four criteria have to be met, all of them (CRA, Life-sustaining therapy eligibility, page updated 24 January 2023, checked 11 August 2026):

• the therapy is needed to support a vital function
• it is needed at least two times per week
• it is needed for an average of at least 14 hours per week, taking time away from everyday activities
• the impairment has lasted, or is expected to last, for a continuous period of at least 12 months

The 14 hours are the whole argument. The CRA is specific about what fills them. Counted: adjusting and administering medication, or working out how much of a compound can be safely consumed; keeping a log related to the therapy; managing dietary restrictions where the therapy requires daily consumption of a medical food to limit a particular compound, or a regular dose of medication that has to be adjusted daily; receiving the therapy at home or at an appointment; setting up and maintaining the equipment; time another person spends performing or supervising the therapy for a child; and time spent assisting someone who cannot do those things themselves because of the effects of the impairment.

What does not count is where people lose the claim. Travel time to get to the therapy is out. So is the time a portable or implanted device takes to deliver the therapy, which is the trap for anyone on an insulin pump: the pump’s own delivery time does not count, while determining and administering the dose does. Also out: obtaining medication, exercising, recuperating afterwards unless it is medically required, medical appointments that do not involve receiving the therapy or setting a dosage, and any dietary restriction that is not on the counted list.

If you have type 1 diabetes, the CRA states that you meet the eligibility criteria under life-sustaining therapy, and that medical practitioners no longer have to provide details of the therapy for 2021 and later years.

A caution about the video on the CRA’s page, and about older tax years. That page carries a video whose transcript says the therapy must be received at least three times per week. The checklist below the video says at least two times per week. The CRA’s note on the video says the eligibility criteria about type 1 diabetes in the video and transcript “are outdated and only apply to 2020 and prior years”, and points readers to the criteria below it “for the eligibility criteria for 2021 and later years”. The two times a week test in the checklist is therefore the rule for 2021 onward, and the checklist is what to use. That distinction matters more than a stale video, because this page also tells you approval can reach back ten years. If you are asking about a tax year before 2021, do not assume the two times a week test applies to it. Ask the CRA which frequency test governs those years before you count anything (CRA, Life-sustaining therapy eligibility, page updated 24 January 2023, checked 20 August 2026).

Read the criteria before your practitioner completes Part B, not after. The hours are what the CRA is deciding on, and nobody can reconstruct them from memory in a ten-minute appointment.

Route 3: the cumulative effect of significant limitations

This route is easy to overlook. If you have limitations in two or more categories, and no single one reaches “marked” on its own, you may still qualify if their combined effect is:

• equivalent to being unable, or taking three times longer, to do an activity in one category, and
• present all or substantially all of the time, generally 90 per cent or more, even with appropriate therapy, devices and medication

Life-sustaining therapy does not go into this combination. If you have been turned down on a single-category application and you have limitations in more than one area, the cumulative route is worth reading properly.

Who can certify your form

Only certain practitioners can complete Part B, and which one depends on the impairment (CRA, How to apply, page updated 28 November 2025, checked 10 August 2026).

• Medical doctor: all impairments
• Nurse practitioner: all impairments
• Optometrist: vision
• Audiologist: hearing
• Occupational therapist: walking, feeding, dressing
• Physiotherapist: walking
• Psychologist: mental functions
• Speech-language pathologist: speaking

Practitioners can charge for this, and you pay it. The CRA says that if your medical practitioner charges a fee for completing the DTC application, you are responsible to pay it. On what that costs, the federal government’s regulatory analysis for the Canada Disability Benefit says there is no set amount, that the fee usually ranges around $125 to $150, that practitioners may charge higher or lower, and that some do not charge a fee at all (Canada Gazette, Part II, SOR/2026-123, 1 July 2026, checked 10 August 2026). You may be able to claim the fee as a medical expense on lines 33099 or 33199 of your return (CRA, Medical expenses guide RC4065, Services and fees, page updated 20 January 2026, checked 4 October 2026). The Canada Disability Benefit’s $150 supplemental payment exists specifically to offset this cost for CDB recipients. The amending regulations came into force on 1 September 2026, and the first payments went out on 17 September 2026 (Employment and Social Development Canada, Supplemental Canada Disability Benefit payments to begin in September, news release, 10 September 2026, checked 16 September 2026). Details are in our Canada Disability Benefit hub.

How to apply, step by step

Everything in this section comes from the CRA’s How to apply page (page updated 28 November 2025, checked 10 August 2026).

Form T2201 has two parts. Part A is yours. Part B is the practitioner’s, and only a practitioner can complete it. If an applicant fills in Part B, the application will not be processed.

Pick one method and stay in it. Both parts must be submitted the same way. A digital Part A and a paper Part B will not be processed as a complete application, and neither will the reverse.

Option 1: the digital form (faster)

Step 1. You complete Part A. Either online or by phone.

Online: sign in to your CRA account, select your Individual account, select Benefits and credits, then select “Apply for DTC” to open the digital form.

By phone: call 1-800-959-8281 to speak to an agent, or 1-800-463-4421 for the automated voice service. You must be able to confirm your identity before you begin. An agent fills in Part A for you.

You will provide basic information about the person with the impairment, basic information about any supporting family member who might claim the amount, and consent for the CRA to contact your practitioner if needed and to adjust your previous returns.

Step 2. You get a reference number. A confirmation page appears with it, and it is also visible in your CRA account. You can save it as a PDF. The CRA’s wording is that it is valid for up to 12 months and can be used only once, by one medical practitioner, to submit Part B digitally within that time. Note the “up to”. It is a ceiling, not a guarantee. Book the appointment while the number is live rather than filing it away, and ask the clinic whether they have used the CRA’s digital application for medical practitioners before, because the whole digital route depends on a practitioner who may never have opened it. One number, one practitioner, one window.

Step 3. You give the reference number to your practitioner. They open the CRA’s digital application for medical practitioners and enter it. The reference number, your last name and your date of birth all have to match what you submitted in Part A.

Step 4. The practitioner completes Part B and it submits itself. No mailing. The status appears in your CRA account once the complete application arrives.

If your practitioner does not have a reference number, they can still fill out Part B online, print it, sign it, and give it to you. Then you complete and sign Part A on the same printed form and mail the whole thing to the CRA as a paper application.

Option 2: the paper form

Step 1. Get the current form. Download Form T2201 from canada.ca. It must be version 23e or 23f, which are the CRA’s codes for the English and French versions of the 2023 form. Since 8 September 2026 nothing older is accepted.

Step 2. Complete Part A, print it, and sign the authorization section (Part A, Section 4). Without that signature the CRA will not process the request. If a legal representative is signing, the CRA needs the legal documents on file first, or included with the mailing.

Step 3. Your practitioner completes Part B and signs the certification section on the last page. The signature must be handwritten. A cursive typeface will get the form returned.

Step 4. Mail the complete form, both parts together, to one of three tax centres. Keep a copy.

• Jonquière Tax Centre, 2251 René-Lévesque Blvd, Jonquière QC G7S 5J2
• Sudbury Tax Centre, Post Office Box 20000, Station A, Sudbury ON P3A 5C1
• Winnipeg Tax Centre, Post Office Box 14000, Station Main, Winnipeg MB R3C 3M2

Do not scan a paper form and upload it. A PDF of the paper form submitted through your CRA account will not be processed.

Why applications get returned

The CRA publishes the list (CRA, How to apply, page updated 28 November 2025, checked 10 August 2026). Every item on it is avoidable.

• the applicant’s or legal representative’s signature is missing from Part A
• someone else signed for an applicant who is of the age of majority in their province and has no appointed legal representative
• a legal representative signed but the CRA has no documents on file showing they are authorized
• the practitioner’s signature is missing from Part B
• a signature is not handwritten
• Part A and Part B arrived separately
• mandatory information is missing: SIN, name, address, date of birth
• any field is incomplete or unreadable

The last one is the broadest. All fields have to be complete and legible or the application may be returned without review.

If you are refused

A returned application and a refused one are different animals. A return is a paperwork problem: you fix it and send it back. A refusal is a decision about the impairment, and a decision can be looked at again. Plenty of people read a refusal as proof they do not qualify. It is not that.

Everything in this section comes from two CRA pages, its CRA’s decision page (page updated 20 July 2026) and its File an objection, Income tax page (page updated 23 February 2024), both checked 11 August 2026.

What arrives, and how to read it

The CRA sends a notice of determination. If you are signed up for email from the CRA it appears in your CRA account; otherwise it comes by post. If you were approved, it shows which years you are eligible for. If you were denied, it explains why.

The CRA’s own instruction is to put three things side by side: your copy of Form T2201, the reasons listed in the notice, and the eligibility criteria. That comparison is the entire job, because the decision turned on one thing. In the CRA’s words, “Our decision is based on how the information given by the medical practitioner meets the DTC eligibility criteria.”

Read that again. The CRA did not assess you. It assessed what your practitioner wrote about you.

That is where most first applications come apart. A practitioner who describes the diagnosis, or writes that a patient is significantly limited, has not answered the question the CRA asked. The question is whether you are unable to do a specific activity or take three times longer at it, all or almost all of the time, even with appropriate therapy, medication and devices, for at least 12 months. A stronger second attempt does not argue harder. It answers those criteria, in those terms, with the detail underneath them.

Two routes, and they are not the same thing

Ask the CRA to review it. You can request a review and send medical information you have not already sent: new or updated medical reports, or a letter from a practitioner who knows your situation. The CRA’s guidance on what that material has to do is one sentence, and it is the most useful sentence on the page. The information “should describe how the impairment(s) affects you.” Not what you have. What it does to your day.

Review requests must be mailed to the tax centre that processed your application, which is Jonquière, Sudbury or Winnipeg. The addresses are in the mailing step above. Keep a copy.

File a formal objection. This is the legal route. It goes to the CRA’s Appeals Division rather than back to the people who decided, and it has a clock on it. The CRA’s DTC page puts it plainly: “You have the right to file an income tax objection within 90 days from the date of the notice of determination.”

A notice of determination is one of only four notices you are allowed to object to, and the CRA names the disability tax credit among the credits this covers.

There is a wider deadline in the general rules. For individuals the CRA sets it as whichever is later: one year after the tax filing deadline for the return, or 90 days from the date of the notice of assessment or determination. Do not plan around the longer one. Ninety days from the date on the notice is the figure the CRA prints on the DTC page itself, and it is the one to work to.

If the 90 days has already gone

You can apply for an extension, and you can do it at the same time as you file the objection. The CRA allows it where you were trying to resolve the issue with the office that sent the determination, or where the delay was caused by circumstances beyond your control. Explain why it is late, and set out the facts and reasons for the objection itself. The outer limit is fixed: “You can apply for an extension up to one year after the deadline for filing an objection by writing to the Chief of Appeals at your Appeals Intake Centre.”

How to file the objection

Online, in your CRA account, using “Register my formal dispute”. Registering online produces a case number, which you need when you send documents. An authorized representative can file for you through Represent a Client.

By mail or fax, use Form T400A, Objection – Income Tax Act, or a signed letter setting out the facts and reasons. Either goes to the Chief of Appeals, Appeals Intake Centre, 1050 Notre Dame Avenue, Sudbury ON P3A 5C1.

Whichever method you use, the CRA asks for the same thing: say clearly what you are objecting to and why you disagree, and include all relevant facts and supporting documentation. One warning the CRA gives about timing: if you are producing information now that the CRA asked for earlier and did not get, it may be sent back to the area that made the original decision for a second look first.

A refusal on one route is not a refusal on all of them

There are three ways to qualify and they are alternatives: a marked restriction in one of the eight categories, life-sustaining therapy, or the cumulative effect of significant limitations in two or more categories. A notice of determination tells you why the application in front of the CRA did not meet the criteria it was assessed against. It is not a ruling that no route is open to you. That is our reading of how the three routes fit together rather than a rule the CRA publishes, so put it to your practitioner. But if a single-category application came back denied and your limitations are real in more than one area, read Route 3 properly before you conclude anything.

The CRA adds one more thing worth knowing: if you are not eligible for the DTC, other tax deductions and credits may still be available to you, and it points to its Disability deductions and credits page.

Where to get help

Three places, and it is worth knowing what each one can and cannot do.

• Free tax clinics, run through the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program, and the Income Tax Assistance – Volunteer Program in Quebec. Community organizations host clinics where volunteers complete tax returns for people with a modest income and a simple tax situation, and there is a clinic finder on canada.ca. The limit: they do tax returns. They are not a DTC appeals service (CRA, Free tax clinics, page updated 19 February 2026, checked 11 August 2026).
• The CRA, at 1-800-959-8281. Calling to ask questions or discuss the application is one of the three options the CRA lists on its own decision page, alongside the review request and the objection.
• The Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson, which reviews service-related complaints about the CRA and issues that affect more than one person. If the problem is how you were treated or how long something took, that is the right door. If the problem is the decision itself, it is not; that is what the objection is for (Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson, page updated 16 June 2026, checked 11 August 2026).

Timing: when to apply

You can apply any time of year. But the CRA reviews your DTC application before it assesses your tax return, so submitting both together delays the assessment (CRA, How to apply, page updated 28 November 2025, checked 10 August 2026).

Submit the DTC application first. File the return after.

Current processing times are on the CRA processing times page. We do not publish a number here, because the CRA’s own page says the time varies with whether it needs more information, how quickly you or your practitioner respond, and how many applications it has received.

Claiming and transferring the credit

Everything in this section comes from the CRA’s Claiming the credit page (page updated 20 January 2026, checked 10 August 2026).

Once the CRA approves the application, the person with the impairment claims the disability amount on their return. If they do not need the whole amount to reduce their tax to zero, the remainder can be transferred to a supporting family member. It is not refunded.

Who counts as a supporting family member. Someone the person with the impairment depends on for at least one of the basic necessities of life, meaning food, shelter or clothing, and who is one of the following: their spouse or common-law partner, their child or grandchild, their parent, grandparent, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, niece or nephew, or a child, grandchild, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, niece or nephew of their spouse or common-law partner.

Naming the supporting family member in Part A, question 2 of the original application saves time later. If they were not named there, they have to send the CRA a signed written request setting out the support they provide.

Where it goes on the return:

• The person with the impairment, claiming for themselves: line 31600, disability amount for self.
• A supporting family member other than a spouse or partner: line 31800, disability amount transferred from a dependant.
• A spouse or common-law partner: line 32600, amounts transferred from your spouse or common-law partner.

Two people supporting the same dependant can split the claim, but the combined total cannot exceed the maximum allowed for that dependant.

What approval opens up

This is why the DTC matters more than its dollar value.

• The Canada Disability Benefit. DTC approval is a hard eligibility requirement. Up to $204.20 a month for July 2026 through June 2027, plus the $150 supplemental payment, whose first payments went out on 17 September 2026 (Employment and Social Development Canada, Supplemental Canada Disability Benefit payments to begin in September, news release, 10 September 2026, checked 16 September 2026). See The Canada Disability Benefit: The Complete Guide.
• The Registered Disability Savings Plan. A person has to be approved for the DTC to be designated as a beneficiary, unless the plan is a transfer from an existing RDSP to a new one. A Canada disability savings grant and a Canada disability savings bond attach to the plan (CRA, Registered disability savings plan rules and RDSP eligibility and contributions, both pages updated 23 December 2025, checked 10 August 2026).
• The Child Disability Benefit, a tax-free monthly payment for families caring for a child under 18 with a severe and prolonged impairment. Two conditions apply: you must be eligible for the Canada child benefit, and your child must be eligible for the DTC (CRA, Child disability benefit, page updated 15 June 2026, checked 10 August 2026).
• Retroactive tax refunds going back up to ten years (CRA, Claiming the credit, page updated 20 January 2026, checked 10 August 2026).

One form. Four doors.

Related reading and tools

Our tools

• Find Your Funding: A Directory of Canadian Disability Funding and Assistive-Device Programs
• The Disability Funding Map for Canadians: Where the Money Actually Is

The other hub

• The Canada Disability Benefit: The Complete Guide

Update log: what changed and when

8 September 2026. The pre-2023 Form T2201 cutoff took effect today, so every sentence describing it has moved from the future tense to the past. The rule itself is unchanged and was re-confirmed at the CRA tax tip of 16 June 2026, which reads “Applications submitted on older versions of the form (before 2023) will no longer be accepted beginning September 8, 2026”. The $150 Canada Disability Benefit supplement is still the one outstanding item on this page.

20 August 2026. Re-verified before publication against the CRA and Finance Canada pages. The 14 July and 8 September 2026 submission deadlines, the 2025 disability amounts, the practitioner list, the practitioner-fee wording, the reference number’s validity, the returned-application reasons, the three tax centre addresses, the two CRA phone numbers, the marked-restriction and cumulative-effect criteria, the life-sustaining therapy criteria and the lowest federal tax rates all confirmed word for word. The caution on the CRA’s duplicated ten-year table still holds: the two copies still give $5,053 and $5,003 for the 2021 supplement. Corrected the caution on the video to say what the CRA’s note actually says, and added the warning that the two times a week frequency test is the rule for 2021 and later years, which matters because approval can reach back ten years.

11 August 2026. Added a full section on what happens if the application is refused: how to read a notice of determination, the difference between asking the CRA to review the decision and filing a formal objection, the 90-day objection deadline and the one-year extension, Form T400A, and where to get help. Wrote Route 2, life-sustaining therapy, properly from the CRA’s criteria, including the 14-hour test and what does not count toward it. Replaced the paraphrased description of what the credit is worth with the actual figures, calculated from the published disability amounts and the lowest federal tax rate, which Bill C-4 cut to 14.5 per cent for 2025 and 14 per cent for 2026. Corrected the reference number’s validity to “up to 12 months”, which is the CRA’s wording.

10 August 2026. Full re-verification against CRA and ESDC pages. Added the 2026 tax-year amounts ($10,341 and $6,032) from the CRA indexation chart. Added a caution on the 2021 supplement for children, where the CRA’s page shows two different figures. Replaced an unsourced statement about practitioner fees with the fee range published in the Canada Gazette regulatory analysis. Added the Canada child benefit condition to the Child Disability Benefit entry and the transfer exception to the Registered Disability Savings Plan entry. Corrected the Who is eligible source date to 18 June 2026 and rechecked every source URL.

28 July 2026. Page created as the canonical DTC application guide, consolidating our earlier DTC coverage. Added the 14 July and 8 September 2026 CRA submission deadlines and the 2025 tax-year amounts.

2026: how the DTC and the CDB fit together. The DTC is the gate to the Canada Disability Benefit, so changes to one move the other. Read: Disability Tax Credit and the Canada Disability Benefit: A 2026 Update

Our original plain-language explainer, which remains the gentler introduction to what the credit is and why it exists. Read: The Disability Tax Credit: A Plain-Language Guide for Canadians

September 2026: what has changed. The pre-2023 Form T2201 cutoff took effect on 8 September 2026 and this page reflects it. The Canada Disability Benefit’s $150 supplemental payment, which offsets certification fees, was paid from 17 September 2026, and this page reflects that.

Confirm before you act

Amounts and CRA processes change every year. This page is reporting, not tax advice, and it goes stale between updates.

Confirm your own situation with the Canada Revenue Agency (1-800-959-8281) or through your CRA account. For questions about how the DTC affects the Canada Disability Benefit, contact Service Canada. The canada.ca pages linked below are the authoritative version of every figure on this page.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

All URLs checked 10 August 2026.

• Disability tax credit (DTC), Canada Revenue Agency, page updated 16 September 2025
• Who is eligible: Disability tax credit (DTC), CRA, page updated 18 June 2026
• How to apply: Disability tax credit form (DTC), CRA, page updated 28 November 2025
• Claiming the credit: Disability tax credit (DTC), CRA, page updated 20 January 2026
• Indexation adjustment for personal income tax and benefit amounts, CRA, page updated 12 March 2026
• Life-sustaining therapy eligibility: Disability tax credit, CRA, page updated 24 January 2023
• CRA’s review: Disability tax credit (DTC), CRA, page updated 20 July 2026
• CRA’s decision: Disability tax credit (DTC), CRA, page updated 20 July 2026
• File an objection: Income tax, CRA, page updated 23 February 2024
• Form T400A, Objection – Income Tax Act, CRA
• Disability deductions and credits, CRA
• Free tax clinics, CRA, page updated 19 February 2026
• Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson, Government of Canada, page updated 16 June 2026
• Report on the Impact of Reducing the Lowest Marginal Personal Income Tax Rate on Non-Refundable Tax Credits, Department of Finance Canada, June 2026, page updated 29 July 2026
• Help speed up your disability tax credit application, CRA tax tip, 16 June 2026
• Form T2201, Disability Tax Credit Certificate, CRA
• Check CRA processing times, CRA
• Registered disability savings plan (RDSP) rules, CRA, page updated 23 December 2025
• RDSP eligibility and contributions, CRA, page updated 23 December 2025
• Child disability benefit (CDB), CRA, page updated 15 June 2026
• Canada Disability Benefit: Do you qualify, Employment and Social Development Canada, page updated 2 July 2026
• Canada Disability Benefit: How much you could receive, Employment and Social Development Canada, page updated 2 July 2026
• Regulations Amending the Canada Disability Benefit Regulations: SOR/2026-123, Canada Gazette, Part II, Vol. 160, No. 13, 1 July 2026