Disability Tax Credit Calculator
What the DTC is worth to you this year — and, if you were approved for earlier years too, what the backdated claim adds up to. The retroactive number is the one people underestimate: approval can reach back 10 years.
What the credit is worth
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How much is the DTC worth? For 2025 the federal disability amount is $10,138, valued at the lowest federal rate of 14.5% — about $1,470 off your federal tax. Your province adds its own amount at its own lowest rate on top. A typical adult claim runs roughly $1,600–$2,300 a year, and because approval can be backdated 10 years, a full retroactive claim commonly pays $15,000–$22,000 in one reassessment.
The mistake almost every DTC estimate makes
The disability amount is not a refund and it is not multiplied by your tax bracket. It is a non-refundable credit valued at the lowest rate — 14.5% federally for 2025, and each province's own bottom rate provincially. Someone earning $250,000 and someone earning $45,000 get the same federal credit, because both are calculated at 14.5%. Estimates that apply a marginal rate overstate the credit for anyone above the first bracket, often by two or three times.
The rates also move by year, which matters for a backdated claim. The federal lowest rate was 15% through 2024, 14.5% in 2025 and 14% from 2026. Alberta cut its provincial bottom rate from 10% to 8% for 2026 only. Each year in the table below is calculated at that year's own rates, not today's.
Non-refundable: the part that decides whether you see any money
A non-refundable credit can reduce your tax to zero but never past it. If you owed no tax in a year, the DTC is worth nothing to you in that year — the calculator shows this directly, because it runs your income through the real tax calculation rather than assuming the full amount lands.
This is not a dead end. An unused disability amount can be transferred to a supporting person: a spouse or common-law partner, or a parent, grandparent, child, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew who supported you. The credit then reduces their tax. For a child claim this is the normal path — a child rarely has tax to offset, so the amount usually moves to a parent. If the calculator tells you the credit is going unused, the transfer is the next step, not the end.
How the years differ. The current year is run through the full tax calculation, so it accounts for tax payable, the Ontario surtax and Quebec's federal abatement. Earlier years are shown as amount × that year's rate — this site does not carry historical bracket tables — so those assume you had enough tax payable in each year to absorb the credit. If your income was low in some of those years, the real retroactive figure will be smaller.
Do you qualify? The eligibility checklist
The DTC is not a diagnosis test. The CRA asks about effects, not conditions: a medical practitioner certifies Form T2201, and the impairment must be severe and prolonged — expected to last at least 12 months. You may qualify if any one of the following is true.
| Category | What it means |
|---|---|
| Blindness | Visual acuity of 20/200 or less in both eyes, or a field of vision of 20 degrees or less — even with correction. |
| Markedly restricted | In at least one basic activity of daily living, all or substantially all of the time (taken as ~90%), even with therapy and devices. |
| Significantly restricted | In two or more of those activities at once, where the cumulative effect is equivalent to a single marked restriction. |
| Life-sustaining therapy | Needed at least 2 times a week, averaging 14 hours a week. (Before 2021 the test was 3 times a week — relevant to backdated claims.) |
The basic activities of daily living are speaking, hearing, walking, eliminating (bowel or bladder), feeding, dressing, and mental functions necessary for everyday life. Mental functions is the one most often overlooked — it covers attention, memory, judgement, problem-solving, goal-setting, regulation of behaviour and emotion, and adaptive functioning.
This checklist is a guide to whether applying is worth your time. It is not a determination — only the CRA's approval of a certified T2201 grants the credit, and a practitioner's certification is required either way.
Backdating: why the retroactive number is so large
When the CRA approves a T2201 it can reassess prior returns within a 10-year window, so an approval today reaches back to the 2016 tax year. You do not file ten separate adjustments — the T2201 asks whether you want prior years reassessed, and approval flows through them in one go.
At roughly $1,600–$2,300 per year across federal and provincial credits, a full ten-year approval lands as a single payment in the $15,000–$22,000 range. The same tax-payable rule applies to each year separately, though: years where you owed no tax contribute nothing unless the amount was transferred to a supporting person.
CDB means two different things — check which one you want
Two federal programs share the initials, and confusing them wastes time:
- Child Disability Benefit — a monthly, tax-free supplement paid alongside the Canada Child Benefit for a child under 18 approved for the DTC. Child-only, income-tested.
- Canada Disability Benefit — a separate federal payment for working-age adults with disabilities, new in 2026.
Both use DTC approval as the gateway, which is the practical reason to apply even if you owe no tax and the credit itself is worth nothing to you directly. This page calculates the Disability Tax Credit — the credit that unlocks the others.
Common questions
How much is the Disability Tax Credit worth?
For 2025, about $1,470 federally (the $10,138 amount at 14.5%) plus your province's own amount at its own lowest rate — roughly $1,600–$2,300 a year combined, depending where you live.
How far back can it be backdated?
Ten years. An approval today can reach the 2016 tax year, commonly paying $15,000–$22,000 in one reassessment.
Is the DTC refundable?
No. It reduces tax payable and never creates a refund by itself. With no tax owing it is worth nothing to you directly — but it can be transferred to a supporting person, and it still unlocks the Child Disability Benefit and the Canada Disability Benefit.
Can I transfer it to a family member?
Yes. Any amount you can't use can go to a spouse or common-law partner, or to a parent, grandparent, child, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew who supported you. For children this is the normal route.
Does the DTC affect my other benefits?
It doesn't reduce them. DTC approval is what makes you eligible for the Child Disability Benefit, the Canada Disability Benefit and an RDSP — the credit is a gateway as much as a tax saving.