# Disability Tax Credit (DTC) Approved - Adjustments to my prior years tax returns?



## MrPCMan (May 3, 2012)

Hi,

I just got approved for the DTC and wondering if I need to hire an accountant to ensure we are not missing any deductions from adjusting our (spouse and mine) prior returns. 

I am concerned that I may negate any credits I will receive if I hire a Tax Accountant. I also did not use any of those DTC company's that charge 30% to help you apply for the DTC, again, thought was, I didn't want to negate the credit. I did the leg work with my doctor and filled out the T2201 with them. Now that I am approved, I want to ensure I don't miss any deductions. I have been reviewing the CRA site on disability, which is a great help. 

Any ideas from any of you who may have gone through this as well? 

Perhaps there is a reasonable accounting/tax firm that wouldn't charge me an unreasonable amount??


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## domelight (Oct 12, 2012)

MrPCMan said:


> Hi,
> 
> I just got approved for the DTC and wondering if I need to hire an accountant to ensure we are not missing any deductions from adjusting our (spouse and mine) prior returns.
> 
> ...


 You can amend from whenever the doctor wrote was the effective date of your eligibility. This is one of the rare times CRA may just re-assess you on their own. You may want to call and see if they are already amending the applicable years.
Although I am a huge believer that having a professional review your individual situation may lead to great benefit, 
A disability credit is what it is, other than maybe transferring it to your spouse there's nothing special or any optimizing to be done. Any Joe with a sign on their front lawn and decent tax software should be able to amend the return appropriately.


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## MrPCMan (May 3, 2012)

domelight said:


> You can amend from whenever the doctor wrote was the effective date of your eligibility. This is one of the rare times CRA may just re-assess you on their own. You may want to call and see if they are already amending the applicable years.
> Although I am a huge believer that having a professional review your individual situation may lead to great benefit,
> A disability credit is what it is, other than maybe transferring it to your spouse there's nothing special or any optimizing to be done. Any Joe with a sign on their front lawn and decent tax software should be able to amend the return appropriately.


My concern is with any tax changes over the past several years and ensuring I am in compliance for each tax year, also we had a Tuition amount transferred from our child, which needs to be factored in for each year, and yes there will be an amount transferred to my spouse. So maybe it is as easy as you make it sound. I usually do my own taxes with software, so maybe I am the Joe. LOL. I believe there may be additional expenses related to my disability that can be claimed as well. 

This is just all new to me and was wondering if anyone else has gone through this?

CRA have asked for an adjustment form, and in looking it up you have to be very specific in the amounts needing adjusting. So I am thinking they are not going to auto adjust.


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## stardancer (Apr 26, 2009)

You will need to do an adjustment for each year back to the date of eligibility
Your return: (I am assuming you have the DTC) on the T1A (adjustment form) enter the appropriate DTC amount for line 316; the DTC is different for each year, so you will have to look up the amount for each specific year you are adjusting
Your spouse's return: complete a schedule 2 to determine the amount that can be transferred; if you have kept records, you should be able to find your information; then complete a T1A and enter the amount for line 326

Do these forms for each year. Note: although the T1A seems like you have to enter each line number that will be changed, you don't have to do that; just enter the information that is new (the DTC); if you have already done the tuition transfer on the original return, this won't be wiped out. Once CRA has entered the new information, their system will automatically recalculate the rest of the original return.

IMO, you don't need an accountant. The work is simple; do a practice one on paper for one year. Once you've done that, each year is the same, with only the numbers changing.

If you mail in paper adjustments, attach one copy of the approval letter with the package. Even though, CRA has it on file, the adjustments go to a different department and this just helps speed things up. Expect to wait quite a while, as they will do all the adjustments before sending any refunds.


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