Patrie – Tax Court of Canada found that a value-enhancing home renovation could qualify for home accessibility tax credit purposes

The house of the taxpayer and his wife had rickety stairs leading down to the yard. To address increasing mobility issues of his wife, the taxpayer replaced these with a deck with a 5-foot wide stairway and aluminum railing – and claimed the $10,000 home accessibility tax credit. CRA was bothered that, with the exception perhaps of the railing, this was what anyone who was trying to improve his home might have built. The definition of “qualifying expenditure” excluded an outlay or expense “made or incurred primarily for the purpose of increasing or maintaining the value of the eligible dwelling.”

In the course of allowing the taxpayer’s appeal, Bocock J stated:

The intention to add or maintain value must be primary. Absent some evidence that the taxpayer foremost sought to improve or maintain the value of the property and only secondarily solve accessibility, the exclusion in sub-paragraph (g) of being “primarily undertaken” to increase or maintain value cannot be sustained.

Neal Armstrong. Summaries of Patrie v. The Queen, 2019 TCC 276 under s. 118.041(1) - “qualifying renovation”, “qualifying expenditure” - (g).