This publication provides statistics based on information that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) processed from applications for the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) or from individuals who claimed the DTC on their individual T1 Income Tax and Benefit Return.

Tables 1 to 11 present demographic data by calendar year, while Tables 12 to 14 present data on DTC determination and utilization for calendar years 2011-2020.

Description of DTC tables

Tables 1 to 11 contain the number of individuals with an accepted DTC certificate by restriction, age, gender, marital status and province.

Table 12 provides a breakdown of DTC determinations by basic activity of daily living (BADL) for DTC certificates processed during the calendar year.

Table 13 provides the breakdown of the number of claimants from T1 returns (re)assessed over the calendar year. The breakdown by BADL is estimated by allocating that number by the proportion of accepted determinations by BADL published in Table 12.

Table 14 provides the breakdown of DTC utilization from T1 returns (re)assessed over the calendar year. The breakdown by BADL is estimated by allocating the “Total Amount of DTC Utilized” by the proportion of accepted determinations by BADL published in Table 12.

Tables 12, 13 & 14 replace the former “Disability Tax Credit at a glance” publication. The CRA is now publishing data by calendar year (rather than by fiscal year).

In some cases, totals may not add up due to rounding or suppression for confidentiality purposes. Please refer to the “Confidentiality procedures” section of the explanatory notes for more information.

Table 1: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by province/territory and restriction

This table presents the number of individuals with an accepted DTC certificate by province or territory of residence and restriction in one or more BADLs as reported by a medical practitioner to the CRA. Individuals who report multiple restrictions on their DTC certificate are counted for each restriction, while the “Total Unique Certificates” column presents a count of unique eligible individuals for that province or territory. As such, this column will not add up to the sum of the previous columns.

Table 2: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by province/territory and age group

This table presents the number of individuals with an accepted DTC certificate broken down by province or territory of residence, and by age group.

Table 3: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by province/territory and duration

This table presents the number of individuals with an accepted DTC certificate broken down by province or territory of residence, and by the deemed duration of their eligibility, defined as either indeterminate or temporary.

Table 4: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by age group and restriction

This table presents the number of individuals with an accepted DTC certificate broken down by age group, and by restriction(s) in BADL as reported by a medical practitioner to the CRA. Individuals who report multiple restrictions on their DTC certificate are counted for each restriction, while the “Total Unique Certificates” column presents a count of unique eligible individuals for that age group. As such, this column will not add up to the sum of the previous columns.

Table 5: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by age group and duration

This table presents the number of individuals with an accepted DTC certificate broken down by age group, and by the deemed duration of eligibility as either indeterminate or temporary.

Table 6: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by gender and age

This table presents the number of individuals with an accepted DTC certificate broken down by gender and age group.

Table 7: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by gender and marital status

This table presents the number of individuals with an accepted DTC certificate broken down by gender and marital status.

Table 8: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by duration and restriction

This table presents the number of individuals with an accepted DTC certificate broken down by restriction and by the deemed duration of eligibility as either indeterminate or temporary. Individuals who report multiple restrictions on their DTC certificate are counted for each restriction, while the “Total Unique Certificates” column presents a count of unique eligible individuals for that duration.

Table 9: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by gender, age group, and restriction

This table presents the number of individuals with an accepted DTC certificate broken down by gender, age group and restriction. Individuals who report multiple restrictions on their DTC certificate are counted for each restriction, while the “Total Unique Certificates” column presents a count of unique eligible individuals for that gender, and age group.

Table 10: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by gender, age group, and marital status

This table presents the number of individuals with an accepted DTC certificate broken down by gender, age group and marital status.

Table 11: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by age group, Province/Territory and restriction

This table presents the number of individuals with an accepted DTC certificate broken down by age group, Province/Territory and restriction. Individuals who report multiple restrictions on their DTC certificate are counted for each restriction, while the “Total Unique Certificates” column presents a count of unique eligible individuals for that age group, and province or territory.

Table 12: DTC determination by BADL, 2011-2020

This table presents the DTC determinations of individuals broken down by BADL. For individuals with a determination that contains both accepted and rejected restrictions, only the accepted restrictions are counted. Therefore, the rejected restrictions contained in accepted certificates are not counted. Caution should be exercised when interpreting the acceptance/rejection rate at the BADL level. Please refer to the “DTC determination” description in the “Description of DTC items” section of the explanatory notes for more information.

Table 13: Number of DTC claimants benefitting through a tax reduction by BADL, 2011-2020

This table presents the number of DTC claimants benefitting through a tax reduction, broken down by BADL. The number of claimants benefitting through a tax reduction for each BADL is derived by multiplying both the total “Number of Claimants” by the share of accepted DTC determinations by BADL published in Table 12. For more information, please refer to the description of “Number of claimants benefitting through a tax reduction” in the “Description of DTC items” section of the explanatory notes.

Table 14: DTC utilization by BADL, 2011-2020

This table presents the dollar amount of DTC utilized by claimants broken down by BADL. The total amount of DTC utilized for each BADL is derived by multiplying both the “Total Amount of DTC Utilized” by the share of accepted DTC determinations by BADL published in Table 12. For more information, please refer to the description of “Total Amount of DTC Utilized” in the “Description of DTC items” section of the explanatory notes.

Explanatory notes

Confidentiality procedures

To ensure the protection of taxpayer information, data have been suppressed where warranted. As well, counts are rounded to the nearest multiple of 10. For example, 104 would be rounded to 100 and 105 would be rounded to 110. Dollar amounts have been rounded to the nearest thousand in all tables. Totals may not add up due to rounding or suppression.

Data sources

Data used to determine eligible DTC certificates were taken from information collected from the T2201 Disability Tax Credit Certificate. These data were then linked to other data sources to produce demographic statistics.

Description of DTC items

Number of individuals with a DTC certificate: This refers to a count of individuals who had a DTC certificate with an “accepted” status that was effective on December 31 of the representative calendar year.

DTC determination: This refers to an Agency decision related to a T2201 Disability Tax Credit Certificate application. With respect to this publication, the determination is as of the date of the data compilation, as DTC determinations are subject to change. DTC Certificates are deemed accepted if the individual meets any one of the restrictions for which they are applying. In cases where an application is accepted for some, but not all of the restrictions indicated on an individual’s T2201, that individual is considered accepted for the purposes of this publication. Only applications that are rejected in their entirety are counted as rejected in this publication. This counting method will result in the acceptance rate at the BADL level to be overestimated. The extent of overestimation depends on the proportion of cases which have both accepted and rejected restrictions, as well as the number of rejected restrictions within each of these cases.

Number of claimants benefitting through a tax reduction: The number of unique tax filers who claimed the disability amount either for themselves, their spouse or their dependent, and who received a reduction in their income tax owing as a result. Claimants who did not receive a reduction to their income tax owing are excluded from the statistics presented in this publication. Please note that more than one individual can claim the disability amount for an eligible dependent. Some individuals with a disability tax credit certificate might not benefit from a tax reduction as they could be in a non-taxable situation, but may benefit from other measures and programs requiring a valid disability tax credit certificate for eligibility. For this publication, “Number of claimants” will be used solely to facilitate reading.

In Table 13, the number of claimants for each BADL is derived by multiplying the total number of DTC claimants by the share of accepted DTC determinations by BADL published in Table 12. For example, if accepted DTC determinations for vision accounted for 4% of total accepted determinations, then Vision would be allocated 4% of the total “Number of Claimants” in Table 13.

Note that DTC utilization is calculated at the claimant level whereas DTC determination is assigned at the certificate level, and then broken down by BADL. This method of extrapolation assumes a one-to-one correspondence between claimants and associated accepted BADLs. As a result, it is not possible to determine the accuracy of the estimated number of claimants by BADL.

Total amount of DTC utilized: The total amount of federal tax savings as the result of an assessed DTC claim that was processed during the calendar year. This estimate does not include any additional reductions to provincial/territorial tax.

In Table 14, the value of DTC utilization for each BADL is derived by multiplying total DTC utilization by the share of accepted DTC determinations by BADL. For example, if accepted DTC determinations for vision accounted for 4% of total accepted determinations in Table 12, then Vision would be allocated 4% of “Total Amount of DTC Utilized” in Table 14.

Similarly, the total amount of DTC utilization is calculated at the claimant level whereas DTC determination is assigned at the certificate level, and then broken down by BADL. This method of extrapolation assumes a one-to-one correspondence between claimants and associated accepted BADLs. As a result, it is not possible to determine the accuracy of the estimated “Total Amount of DTC Utilized” by BADL.

As a non-refundable tax credit (NRTC), the DTC can only reduce a claimant’s tax liability to zero. To estimate the “Total Amount of DTC Utilized” in Table 14, the following method is used:

Step one:

Take the lesser amount from either line 326- Amounts transferred from your spouse or common-law partner from Schedule 1- Federal Tax or line 357- Disability amount transferred from spouse or common-law partner from Schedule 2- Federal amounts transferred from your spouse or common-law partner, then add this amount to lines 316- Disability amount for self and 318- Disability amount transferred from a dependent from Schedule 1- Federal tax. Multiply the total amount by the NRTC rate for the relevant tax year. This amount is referred to as the DTC NRTC amount. If the DTC NRTC amount is 0, then the individual is not considered.

Step two:

Remove the DTC NRTC amount from the total NRTC amount on line 350- Total federal non-refundable tax credits of Schedule 1- Federal Tax. This new amount is referred to as the non-DTC NRTC amount.

Step three:

Subtract the amount from line 350- Total federal non-refundable tax credits from the amount on line 404 reported on Schedule 1- Federal Tax. If the result is greater than or equal to 0, then the amount of utilization is the DTC NRTC amount as calculated in step two and the individual is considered to have fully utilized the credit. No additional steps are necessary. The claimant’s full amount will be included in the estimate of “Total Amount of DTC Utilized”.

Step four:

If the amount calculated in step three is less than 0, subtract the non-DTC NRTC amount calculated in step two from line 404 from the Schedule 1- Federal tax. If the difference is less than 0, then the utilization amount is 0 and the claimant is considered to have not utilized the credit. No additional steps are necessary. The claimant’s full amount will not be counted in the estimate of “Total Amount of DTC Utilized”.

Step five:

If the amount calculated in step four is greater than 0, then consider that the amount of DTC utilized, in which case the individual is considered to have partially utilized the credit. The claimant’s partial amount will be counted in the estimate of “Total Amount of DTC Utilized”.

Major classification variables

The following variables are used in one or more of the tables in this publication:

• province or territory of residence;
• age group;
• duration;
• gender;
• marital status;
• restriction / basic activities of daily living;
• status.

Province or territory of residence

In tables 1, 2, 3 & 11, the province or territory of residence refers to the province or territory in which the eligible individual lived on December 31 of the tax year, as indicated on their Income Tax and Benefit Return.

Age

For tables 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 & 11, the age of the eligible individual is based on the birth date that the CRA has on file for the individual.

Duration

For tables 3, 5 & 8, duration refers to the deemed duration of eligibility. This is the period of time between the date on which an individual is deemed by the CRA to have met the DTC eligibility criteria and the date the eligibility expires. The duration is defined to be either indeterminate or temporary.

Gender

For tables 6, 7 & 9, gender is determined from the information currently on file with the CRA for that individual. Gender is defined to be female, male, gender diverse or unknown. Individuals whose gender is non-binary are represented in the gender diverse category.

Marital status

For tables 7 and 10, two categories of marital status were used. For the purposes of this publication, different categories of marital status have been combined as either "married" or "not married". "Not married" includes all single, separated, divorced, and widowed recipients. "Married" includes all married and common-law recipients.

Restriction / basic activities of daily living

For tables 1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13 & 14, restriction refers to a marked restriction in a BADL, or the requirement for life-sustaining therapy to support a vital function. BADLs are defined as:

• speaking;
• hearing;
• walking;
• eliminating (bowel and bladder functions);
• feeding;
• dressing; and
• mental functions necessary for everyday life.

“Vision” refers to individuals who are certified as blind by a medical doctor, nurse practitioner or optometrist.

“Cumulative” in these tables refers to individuals with significant restrictions in more than one BADL that is equivalent to being markedly restricted in one BADL. The cumulative effect of these significant restrictions is determined to be markedly restrictive such that the individual is eligible for the DTC.

“Life sustaining therapy” in these tables refers to a therapy that supports a vital function and is need at least 3 times per week, for an average of at least 14 hours.

Status

In Table 12, status refers to the DTC determination of a T2201 Disability Tax Credit Certificate processed during the calendar year at the time that these statistics were compiled. For the purposes of this publication, the status of a DTC determination can either be accepted or rejected. In cases where a T2201 was accepted, but not for all restrictions or the entire eligibility period that an individual indicated on their T2201 certificate, these certificates are considered accepted for the purposes of this publication. Certificates that are disallowed for all restrictions and the entire period of eligibility are counted as rejected.

Tables in PDF format

Please refer to the explanatory notes about these tables.

• Table 1: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by province/territory and restriction, 2020
• Table 2: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by province/territory and age group, 2020
• Table 3: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by province/territory and duration, 2020
• Table 4: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by age group and restriction, 2020
• Table 5: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by age group and duration, 2020
• Table 6: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by gender and age group, 2020
• Table 7: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by gender and marital status, 2020
• Table 8: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by duration and restriction, 2020
• Table 9: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by gender, age group, and restriction, 2020
• Table 10: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by gender, age group, and marital status, 2020
• Table 11: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by age group, Province/Territory and restriction, 2020
• Table 12: DTC determination by BADL, 2011-2020
• Table 13: Number of DTC claimants benefitting through a tax reduction by BADL, 2011-2020
• Table 14: DTC utilization by BADL, 2011-2020

Tables in CSV format

Please refer to the explanatory notes about these tables.

Table 1: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by province/territory and restriction, 2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data are as of November 10, 2021 and are subject to change.
3. Counts represent individuals with an accepted DTC certificate that was effective on December 31, 2020.
4. Unspecified represents individuals whose province or territory is unavailable.
5. Individuals with multiple restrictions linked to their certificate will be counted once for each restriction, while the “Total Unique Certificates” column presents a unique count of individuals eligible for the DTC for that province or territory. As such, this column will not add up to the sum of the previous columns.

Table 2: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by province/territory and age group, 2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data are as of November 10, 2021 and are subject to change.
3. Counts represent individuals with an accepted DTC certificate that was effective on December 31, 2020.
4. Unspecified represents individuals whose province or territory is unavailable.
5. The age of the individual is as of December 31, 2020.
6. N/A refers to individuals whose age is unavailable.
7. A hyphen [-] indicates that the information has been suppressed for confidentiality purposes.

Table 3: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by province/territory and duration, 2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data are as of November 10, 2021 and are subject to change.
3. Counts represent individuals with an accepted DTC certificate that was effective on December 31, 2020.
4. Unspecified represents individuals whose province or territory is unavailable.

Table 4: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by age group and restriction, 2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data are as of November 10, 2021 and are subject to change.
3. Counts represent individuals with an accepted DTC certificate that was effective on December 31, 2020.
4. Individuals with multiple restrictions linked to their certificate will be counted once for each restriction, while the “Total Unique Certificates” column presents a unique count of individuals eligible for the DTC for that province or territory. As such, this column will not add up to the sum of the previous columns.
5. The age of the individual is as of December 31, 2020.
6. N/A refers to individuals whose age is unavailable.
7. A hyphen [-] indicates that the information has been suppressed for confidentiality purposes.

Table 5: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by age group and duration, 2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data are as of November 10, 2021 and are subject to change.
3. Counts represent individuals with an accepted DTC certificate that was effective on December 31, 2020.
4. The age of the individual is as of December 31, 2020.
5. N/A refers to individuals whose age is unavailable.

Table 6: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by gender and age group, 2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data are as of November 10, 2021 and are subject to change.
3. Counts represent individuals with an accepted DTC certificate that was effective on December 31, 2020.
4. The age of the individual is as of December 31, 2020.
5. N/A refers to individuals whose age is unavailable.
6. Unknown refers to individuals whose gender is unavailable.
7. A hyphen [-] indicates that the information has been suppressed for confidentiality purposes.

Table 7: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by gender and marital status, 2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data are as of November 10, 2021 and are subject to change.
3. Counts represent individuals with an accepted DTC certificate that was effective on December 31, 2020.
4. Unknown refers to individuals whose gender is unavailable.
5. Undeclared refers to individuals whose marital status was not reported.
6. Not married includes all single, separated, divorced, and widowed individuals. Married includes all married and common-law individuals.
7. A hyphen [-] indicates that the information has been suppressed for confidentiality purposes.

Table 8: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by duration and restriction, 2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data are as of November 10, 2021 and are subject to change.
3. Counts represent individuals with an accepted DTC certificate that was effective on December 31, 2020.
4. Individuals with multiple restrictions linked to their certificate will be counted once for each restriction, while the “Total Unique Certificates” column presents a unique count of individuals eligible for the DTC for that duration. As such, this column will not add up to the sum of the previous columns.

Table 9: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by gender, age group, and restriction, 2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data are as of November 10, 2021 and are subject to change.
3. Counts represent individuals with an accepted DTC certificate that was effective on December 31, 2020.
4. Individuals with multiple restrictions linked to their certificate will be counted once for each restriction, while the “Total Unique Certificates” column presents a unique count of individuals eligible for the DTC for that gender and age group. As such, this column will not add up to the sum of the previous columns.
5. The age of the individual is as of December 31, 2020.
6. Unknown refers to individuals whose gender is unavailable.
7. N/A refers to individuals whose age is unavailable.
8. A hyphen [-] indicates that the information has been suppressed for confidentiality purposes.

Table 10: Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by gender, age group, and marital status, 2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data are as of November 10, 2021 and are subject to change.
3. Counts represent individuals with an accepted DTC certificate that was effective on December 31, 2020.
4. The age of the individual is as of December 31, 2020.
5. Unknown refers to individuals whose gender is unavailable.
6. Undeclared refers to individuals whose marital status was not reported.
7. N/A refers to individuals whose age is unavailable.
8. Not married includes all single, separated, divorced, and widowed individuals. Married includes all married and common-law individuals.
9. A hyphen [-] indicates that the information has been suppressed for confidentiality purposes.

Table 11 Number of individuals with a DTC certificate by age group, Province/Territory and restriction, 2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data are as of November 10, 2021 and are subject to change.
3. Counts represent individuals with an accepted DTC certificate that was effective on December 31, 2020.
4. Individuals with multiple restrictions linked to their certificate will be counted once for each restriction, while the “Total Unique Certificates” column presents a unique count of individuals eligible for the DTC for that age group and province or territory. As such, this column will not add up to the sum of the previous columns.
5. The age of the individual is as of December 31, 2020.
6. Unspecified represents individuals whose province or territory is unavailable.
7. N/A refers to individuals whose age is unavailable.
8. A hyphen [-] indicates that the information has been suppressed for confidentiality purposes.

Table 12: DTC determination by BADL, 2011-2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. A DTC determination refers to an Agency decision related to a T2201 Disability Tax Credit Certificate application. With respect to this publication, the determination is as of the date of the data compilation, as DTC determinations are subject to change.
3. Data on DTC determinations are as of December 31 of the respective calendar year and are subject to change.
4. Individuals who have had multiple DTC determinations processed during the calendar year are only being counted once.
5. DTC determinations with multiple accepted restrictions linked to their certificate will be counted once for each restriction, while the “Total Unique Determinations” column presents a unique count of DTC determinations. As such, this count will not add up to the sum of restrictions by status.
6. For DTC determinations that contain both accepted and rejected restrictions, only the accepted restrictions are counted.

Table 13: Number of DTC claimants benefitting through a tax reduction by BADL, 2011-2020

Notes:

1. All counts are rounded to the nearest ten. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data on the number of claimants are as of December 31 of the respective calendar year and are subject to change.
3. Data on DTC utilization are from returns processed between January 1 and December 31 of the respective calendar year.
4. (Re)assessments processed during the calendar year that did not result in a change to the DTC amount utilized were not counted in these estimates.
5. Number of claimants benefitting through a tax reduction refers to the number of unique tax filers who claimed the DTC, either for themselves, their spouse or their dependent during the calendar year.
6. The number of claimants benefitting through a tax reduction for each BADL is derived by multiplying both the total “Number of Claimants” and the “Total Amount of DTC Utilized” by the share of accepted DTC determinations by BADL published in Table 12.

Table 14: DTC utilization by BADL, 2011-2020

Notes:

1. All amounts are rounded to the nearest thousand. The sum of the data may not add to the total, due to rounding.
2. Data on DTC utilization are as of December 31 of the respective calendar year and are subject to change.
3. Data on DTC utilization are from returns processed between January 1 and December 31 of the respective calendar year.
4. For data on DTC utilization, (re)assessments processed during the calendar year that did not result in a change to the DTC amount utilized were not counted in these estimates.
5. Total amount of DTC utilized refers to the dollar amount of federal tax savings as the result of an assessed DTC claim. This estimate does not include any additional savings achieved from provincial/territorial tax.
6. The total amount of DTC utilized for each BADL is derived by multiplying both the total “Number of Claimants” and the “Total Amount of DTC Utilized” by the share of accepted DTC determinations by BADL published in Table 12.