As we are getting close to ending another tax year many of us begin to look at what potential credits are available to us. Whenever the government comes out with announcements for new tax credits we often become excited over these, but when it comes time to claim them it’s not as easy as it was made to sound.
A good example is the HATC which is the Federal home accessibility tax credit. This was one of the tax credits that was proposed in the federal 2015 budget and has received its Royal assent. It is only applicable to expenses that will qualify during the year 2016 and going forward. It is for work performed or goods needed for a qualifying renovation for a dwelling that is considered to be eligible, that a individual who has qualified for this tax credit lives in. You will note the words qualifying and eligible as being the buzzwords for this non refundable tax credit.
If you are thinking of looking into utilizing this tax credit because you need some renovations done to your home as a senior, then there is going to be several steps that you are going to have to go through.
First you’re going to have to determine whether you are a qualifying individual or an eligible individual. Let’s look at the qualifying individual criteria first.
Age requirement is the first criteria which means you must be 65 years and over, or you are eligible to claim the disability tax credit for any period within the taxation year.
You may have a spouse or qualifying individual that lives in the same residence that the renovations are pertaining to, and if so then the maximum amount for this credit is $10,000 worth of repairs. That doesn’t mean that you are going to reduce your taxes by $10,000 it means that the tax reduction will be 15% of the 10,000.
An eligible individual has a lot more criteria to it and needs to be looked at carefully by each individual to see if they fall into the eligibility category. Then on top of this there are the expenses that have to qualify. Again there are specifics that have to be followed to get the renovation that you are thinking about qualified in regards to the amount.
It doesn’t end here as you also have to qualify the renovation basically the qualifying renovation has to be one that is going to be enduring and is integral to the dwelling.
As a senior that has a requirement for your home by way of renovations, it is highly important that you speak with somebody that is well-versed with this new tax credit to help you meet all of the criteria before you go ahead and lay out the money for the renovations thinking that you are going to get a tax break on.
