Attendant care expenses can only be claimed if the payments made were to someone who was not the spouse or common law partner. The attendant also had to be eighteen or older. If you were not eligible for the disability amount you may still be able to claim this attendant care expense, but there are specific rules governing this.
You may be eligible to claim the attendant care costs incurred by or your spouse or common law partner if they were on behalf of yourself, your spouse or common law partner, or their under age 18 child. It can also be claimed for other eligible dependents of your own or your spouse or common law partner. The same applies for a child that is over 18 but is classed as a dependent. You may also be able to include the attendant costs incurred for dependent parents, grandparent, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew, but this is only if they lived in Canada at any given time throughout the year that the claim is being applied to.
If you are making an attendant expense claim for other eligible dependents this is claimed as medical expenses. This means the claim will be subjected to the applicable federal and provincial or territorial limits that apply to medical expenses.
Keeping the proper paper work when it comes to the payment of the attendant is very important. The attendant will be classed as either a self employed contractor, or may actually be your employee. The receipt for your payment must have the attendant’s sin number on it. If your attendant is an employee then you have to take on the employer role and submit the employer’s CPP contributions as well as the EI premiums. You also have to abide by the rules for minimum wage.
It is also important for you to know as to what qualifies for attendant care. This could be for care that has been provided within the residence, or if this of care was offered in a nursing home, retirement home or other recognized institutions. You may have had to utilize the services of an attendant within a school setting, or other type of establishment. In this care the care offered must be confirmed that it was needed by a medical doctor.
Attendant care is not just restricted to some form of medical type care. It can include housekeeping, or meal preparation.
If you are not clear about how to claim for attendant’s care or what qualifies as such you can ask the CRA for clarification. In addition to this it would be wise to utilize the services of an experienced accountant to assist with your tax return filing.
