Home Accessibility Tax Credit (HATC) Calculator Canada

What the home accessibility tax credit calculator does

The calculator estimates the federal credit on renovations that make a home safer or easier to live in for a senior or a person with a disability, then shows what the work costs once that credit, the medical expense credit and certain provincial credits are taken off.

Enter what you spent on eligible work and choose your province. The calculator caps the expenses at the annual limit, applies your share of the claim, credits it at the lowest federal tax rate, and runs the same amount through the medical expense tax credit.

A worked example

With the default inputs, an Ontario senior with $55,000 of net income spends $15,000 on eligible work and claims all of it. The home accessibility credit is $15,000 × 14% = $2,100. As a medical expense, the amount above the $1,650 floor (3% of net income) gives about $1,869 federally and about $674 from Ontario. The total is about $4,643, bringing the net cost of the work to about $10,357, a subsidy of about 31%. The same work in British Columbia adds a $1,000 seniors home renovation credit, for about $5,717 in total.

Who and what qualifies

A qualifying individual is 65 or older at the end of the tax year, or eligible for the disability tax credit at any age. The claim can be made by that person or by an eligible individual such as a spouse, common-law partner or supporting relative who claims certain amounts for them.

The renovation must be enduring, integral to the home, and must help the qualifying individual get into the home, move or function within it, or reduce the risk of harm in it. Wheel-in showers, stairlifts, permanent ramps, widened doorways, lowered counters, non-slip flooring and properly installed grab bars are usual examples.

Routine repairs and maintenance, appliances, entertainment devices, housekeeping and security monitoring, and financing costs do not qualify. Nor does work by a related person unless they are registered for GST/HST, and you cannot claim the value of your own labour.

How the calculation runs

Expenses are capped at $20,000 per qualifying individual per year, not per renovation. Where more than one person claims for the same individual and home, everyone’s claims together cannot exceed the cap, so the family has to agree a split; the calculator applies your percentage. The capped, shared amount is multiplied by the lowest federal rate, because the HATC is a non-refundable credit.

Claiming the same work medically

Many accessibility renovations also count as medical expenses, and the CRA allows an expense that qualifies for both credits to be claimed under both.

For the medical expense credit, only the amount above a floor counts: the lesser of a percentage of your net income and a dollar cap. The balance is credited at the lowest federal rate and the lowest rate of your province or territory. Quebec credits 20% of expenses above 3% of family income (enter your spouse’s net income), and each province uses its own dollar limit on the floor. British Columbia and New Brunswick add a refundable seniors home renovation credit of 10% of up to $10,000, and Saskatchewan a non-refundable credit of 10.5% of expenses above $1,000, capped at $5,000; the calculator adds these.

Any other medical expenses you plan to claim share the same floor and are counted first. Turn off the medical claim if the work does not meet the medical expense definition.

Non-refundable means what it says

The federal credits reduce federal tax payable, and once that reaches zero any remaining federal credit is lost; the HATC cannot be carried forward. This matters for retirees with little taxable income. Enter your federal tax payable before credits, and the calculator shows how much federal credit would go unused. Running it once for each potential claimant shows who should claim.

The provincial credits other than those in British Columbia and New Brunswick are non-refundable, and the calculator does not check them against your provincial tax, so treat that figure as the most available.

Splitting one renovation between family members

A bathroom conversion may involve the senior who lives there, an adult child who paid part of it and a spouse. The cap stays fixed per qualifying individual per home per year, so the split is a planning decision: load the claim onto whoever has enough tax to absorb it. If the unused federal credit is above zero, shift more of the claim to another family member.

Expenses count in the year they are paid, so a project that genuinely spans a year end can use two annual caps. Do not backdate anything to arrange that.

Keeping the paperwork right

The CRA does not want receipts with the return, but you must keep them. They should show the contractor or vendor, their business address and GST/HST number, a description of the goods or work, the date, the address where the work was done and the amount paid. Where an invoice mixes eligible and ineligible work, ask for it to be itemized: a wheel-in shower and grab bars listed apart from new tiles and a vanity are much easier to defend.

Where the figures come from

The annual cap, the lowest federal and provincial credit rates, the medical expense floor and the provincial seniors renovation credits are maintained as parameters from CRA and provincial sources. This is a planning estimate, not tax advice. Confirm eligibility, the cap and your claim split with the CRA or a qualified adviser before filing.

About This Tool: Home Accessibility Tax Credit

Home accessibility tax credit: use this tool to get an instant, accurate estimate. The figures follow official CRA guidance and every rate and threshold is kept up to date for 2026. Adjust the inputs above to match your situation, or browse all our calculators to plan your next step.