Modifications to Buildings to Accommodate Disabled Persons

You may have renovated your property to accommodate disabled persons. Outlays and expenses you made or incurred after 1990 for eligible disability-related modifications to an existing building you use to earn income will be fully deductible in the year they are incurred instead of being added to the capital cost of your building. Eligible disability-related modifications are changes you make to accommodate wheelchairs, such as hand-activated, power door openers; interior and exterior ramps; widening doorways; and alterations to bathrooms.

Renovations and alterations to a dwelling

¶ 54. In the case of an individual who lacks normal physical development or who has a severe and prolonged mobility impairment, reasonable expenses relating to renovations or alterations to the individual's dwelling can be claimed as medical expenses under paragraph 118.2(2)(l.2). To qualify, these expenses must be paid to enable the individual to gain access to the dwelling or be mobile or functional within it. Included in this category are reasonable expenses for necessary structural changes, such as:

(a) the purchase and installation of outdoor or indoor ramps where stairways impede the individual's mobility;

(b) the enlarging of halls and doorways to allow the individual access to the various rooms of the dwelling; and

(c) the lowering of kitchen or bathroom cabinets to allow the individual access to them.

The types of structural changes that could be eligible are not restricted to the above examples. "Reasonable expenses" pertaining to a particular structural change may include payments to an architect or a contractor.