What the T2201 is for
The disability tax credit reduces income tax for a person with a severe and prolonged impairment, or for the family member who supports them. CRA doesn’t assess the diagnosis. It assesses the effect: whether the impairment markedly restricts a basic activity of daily living, or would without life-sustaining therapy. A diagnosis with no description of what the patient can’t do is the most common reason a T2201 fails.
In the CMA and CFIB national survey of nearly 2,000 physicians, the DTC ranked as the single most burdensome form physicians are asked to complete, and an initial application takes more than 36 minutes on average.
Who completes it
The patient, or their legal representative, completes Part A with their identification and who will claim the credit. A medical practitioner completes Part B. Medical doctors and nurse practitioners can certify any category. Optometrists can certify vision, audiologists hearing, psychologists mental functions, speech-language pathologists speaking, physiotherapists walking, and occupational therapists walking, feeding, and dressing.
Part A usually travels separately from Part B. The patient picks up a printed copy, fills it in at home, and brings it back, or fills it in at the front desk before the appointment, while you complete Part B by hand or in a separate file and the pages get stapled together. In Medulla, you send Part A to the patient over a secure link before the visit. They fill it in on the form itself from any device, and when they send it back their answers are already on the PDF you complete Part B on. CRA gets one complete form, and nobody retypes the patient’s details.
How to fill in Part B
Choose the categories that apply
Part B has a section for each basic activity: vision, speaking, hearing, walking, eliminating, feeding, dressing, and mental functions necessary for everyday life, plus life-sustaining therapy and the cumulative effect of significant restrictions. Complete only the sections the impairment affects. Each section asks for the same things in its own words: what the patient can’t do, how often, and since when.
Apply the right test
A patient is markedly restricted when, even with appropriate therapy, devices, and medication, they can’t perform the activity, or it takes them an inordinate amount of time, all or substantially all of the time. CRA reads “substantially all” as at least 90% of the time and “inordinate” as roughly three times longer than for someone without the impairment. When no single activity meets that bar but two or more are significantly restricted, the cumulative effect section is the right place.
Describe the effect in daily terms
Give concrete examples from the record: how long dressing takes, how far the patient can walk before stopping, how often they need reminders to eat or take medication. Name the devices and therapy they use and say what they still can’t do with them. This is the section CRA reads most closely.
Duration and year of onset
The impairment must have lasted, or be expected to last, at least 12 continuous months. Give the year the marked restriction began, which can differ from the year of diagnosis. Patients often ask CRA to apply the credit to earlier years, so an accurate onset year matters.
Life-sustaining therapy
For therapy such as intensive insulin therapy or dialysis, the therapy must be needed at least two times a week and take an average of at least 14 hours a week, counting only the time spent on activities that directly deliver it.
Common reasons CRA sends it back
- A diagnosis with no description of the functional effect.
- Restrictions described as occasional, or present only on bad days, when the form needs “all or substantially all of the time”.
- No year of onset, or a duration under 12 months.
- Categories certified by a practitioner whose scope doesn’t cover them.
- An unsigned certification or missing practitioner details.
Submitting and who pays
The patient sends the completed paper form to their CRA tax centre, or you submit Part B digitally using their reference number. CRA usually replies with a notice of determination, and it may send you a clarification letter asking for more detail. CRA doesn’t pay for the form, so clinics typically bill the patient directly.