Home Accessibility Tax Credit for a Bathroom Renovation

The Home Accessibility Tax Credit lets a senior 65 or older, or someone eligible for the disability tax credit, claim up to $20,000 a year of renovation costs that make their home safer or easier to get around. Claimed on line 31285, it is worth up to $2,800 off federal tax for 2026, at the 14% federal rate.

Wheel-in showers, walk-in bathtubs and grab bars are three of the four examples the federal Department of Finance gives for the credit; the fourth is a wheelchair ramp. Some family members who support the person can claim it too. It is a federal credit only: Ontario has no matching provincial version.

For how the room itself is designed, waterproofed and built, see our page on bathroom renovation in Ottawa.

What the Home Accessibility Tax Credit is worth in 2026

The credit is non-refundable. It lowers the federal income tax you owe and stops at zero, so it pays nothing back to someone who owes no tax. The Department of Finance sets it at the lowest federal tax rate, applied to up to $20,000 of eligible expenses a year.

That rate fell from 15% to 14% on 2025-07-01, and the CRA uses 14.5% for the whole of 2025. The table shows the most the credit is worth in each tax year:

The cap belongs to the person and the home together. Each qualifying person can have up to $20,000 of expenses a year, and a home with two qualifying people in it still has one $20,000 cap. The people entitled to claim can split it between them; if they cannot agree, the CRA sets the shares.

Before 2022 the cap was $10,000, which is the figure some older articles still print. It doubled to $20,000 for the 2022 tax year.

Who can claim it

The CRA uses two terms. A qualifying individual is 65 or older at the end of the year, or eligible for the disability tax credit at any time in the year. An eligible individual is someone claiming for them: a spouse or common-law partner, or a relative who claims, or could claim, certain caregiver or dependant amounts for them.

That relative can be a parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, nephew or niece, and the qualifying person has to live with them.

The home has to be an eligible dwelling: a housing unit in Canada that the qualifying person owns and lives in, or that the claiming relative owns and shares with them. A share in a housing co-operative counts, and so does the land under the house up to half a hectare. A condo owner can claim their share of eligible work on the common areas.

Renting from a landlord rules the claim out: the home has to be owned by the qualifying person or by the relative who claims.

Because the credit only reduces tax, who claims it matters. When a retired parent owes little federal tax, a son or daughter who qualifies as an eligible individual and owes more can make the claim instead, or the two can split it.

Which bathroom changes qualify

The CRA sets two tests. The work has to be a renovation of an enduring nature that is integral to the home. And it has to either let the qualifying person get into the home and be mobile or functional inside it, or reduce their risk of harm there.

Bathroom work that matches the Department of Finance's examples, or fits the wording of the two tests:

• A curbless, wheel-in shower in place of a tub or a curbed stall, with the drain and waterproofing it needs. Our guide to specifying a walk-in shower covers the curb-or-no-curb choice.
• A walk-in bathtub with a door.
• Grab bars fixed through the wall into studs or solid blocking, beside the toilet and in the shower. Our grab bar installation guide explains why a bar needs a stud or blocking behind it.
• A doorway widened so a walker or a wheelchair fits through, which fits the CRA's wording about being mobile within the home.
• A low-entry corner shower replacing a tub you have to step over, in a room too small for a full walk-in. Our how-to on installing a corner shower walks through the pan and the framing.

What the CRA leaves out

The CRA lists these as not eligible:

• anything that does not become a permanent part of the home, such as a free-standing shower chair
• annual, recurring or routine repairs and maintenance
• household appliances and home-entertainment electronics
• work done mainly to raise or keep up the value of the home
• financing costs, such as the interest on a renovation loan
• your own labour and tools, when you do the work yourself

Most bathroom projects mix the two. Only expenses directly attributable to the qualifying renovation count, so the new shower floor and the grab bars can qualify while a mirror or a feature wall chosen for looks is hard to tie to access or safety. An invoice that lists the accessibility work on its own lines makes the claim easy to support if the CRA asks.

When to claim a medical expense instead: the 2026 rule

From the 2026 tax year, one expense goes on one credit. The Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1, which received royal assent on 2026-03-26, amended the Income Tax Act so that an expense included in a medical expense claim cannot also count toward the Home Accessibility Tax Credit. The change applies from 2026-01-01.

Up to the 2025 return, the CRA's line 31285 page still lets you claim the same expense as a medical expense and as a home accessibility expense. That page, last updated 2026-07-24, is written for the 2025 tax year. For bathroom work paid for in 2026 or later, decide where each receipt goes before you file.

The medical route has rules of its own. Ontario's list of eligible medical expenses includes renovation that improves a person's mobility, access or functioning within the home because of a severe and prolonged impairment, and its seniors credit counts only the part of medical expenses above 3% of net income.

Which route is worth more depends on the household's income and on who claims, so it is a question for whoever prepares the return. Ask it before the work starts, while the invoices can still be split the way the claim needs.

Does Ontario have its own accessibility tax credit?

Ontario has no provincial version of it. The CRA's page for line 31285 lists the provincial or territorial line as not applicable, and Ontario's Seniors' Home Safety Tax Credit covered only the 2021 and 2022 tax years.

The Ontario credit that can touch a bathroom is the Ontario Seniors Care at Home Tax Credit. It is refundable, so it pays even when no tax is owed, and it is for Ontario residents who turn 70 or older in the year, or whose spouse or common-law partner does. Ontario sets it out like this:

• 25% of claimable medical expenses up to $6,000, for a maximum credit of $1,500
• claimable expenses are eligible medical expenses above 3% of net income
• the credit drops by 5% of family net income over $35,000, and is gone by $65,000 at most
• eligible expenses include bathroom aids such as grab bars, grips and rails

It is claimed on Form ON479, after the medical expense lines of the return: lines 33099 to 33200 on the federal side and 58689 to 58769 on Ontario's. Because it runs through the medical expense claim, the 2026 rule above applies to it: a bathroom expense used there cannot also go on line 31285.

For a grant rather than a credit, March of Dimes Canada runs the Home and Vehicle Modification Program, which gives financial help with basic home modifications to Ontario residents with a substantial mobility impairment who qualify financially. The CRA says grants and forgivable loans from the federal or a provincial government do not reduce the Home Accessibility Tax Credit.

How to claim the credit, and the invoice you need

1. Add up the year's eligible expenses, to a maximum of $20,000, in the chart for line 31285 on the Federal Worksheet.
2. Enter the result on line 31285 of the federal return.
3. Keep the paperwork and send none of it with the return. The CRA can ask to see it later.

The CRA wants agreements, invoices and receipts that show:

• who did the work: the contractor's name, business address and, if registered, GST/HST number
• a description of the work and the address where it was done
• the dates the goods were bought or delivered and the work was done
• the invoice amount, and proof it was paid in full, such as a credit card slip or a cancelled cheque

Paid work by a professional, such as a plumber, electrician, carpenter or architect, generally qualifies. Work by a relative qualifies only if that relative is registered for GST/HST. Reasonable rebates from a manufacturer or seller do not reduce the expense.

If you do the work yourself, the CRA accepts building materials, fixtures, equipment rentals, building plans and permits, but not your labour or your tools.

Do you need a permit for an accessible bathroom in Ottawa?

It depends on what the work touches. Grab bars, handrails and lever handles need no permit. The City of Ottawa lists alterations to a plumbing system, other than replacing existing fixtures, as permit work, so a shower drain that moves or drops for a curbless floor needs one. Adding or removing walls is on the same list, which is why a widened doorway is usually permit work.

New wiring, such as a light or an outlet moved for the new layout, goes to the Electrical Safety Authority, separately from the building permit. The City puts the duty on the owner: the permit has to be in place before work starts, even when the contractor applies for it. Our guide to building permits in Ottawa walks through the application.

The $7,500 credit it gets confused with

The multigenerational home renovation tax credit, line 45355, is a separate, refundable federal credit. It pays toward building a self-contained secondary unit so that a senior 65 or older, or an adult 18 to 64 who is eligible for the disability tax credit, can live with a qualifying relative. It covers up to $50,000 of costs for one renovation, once in the qualifying person's lifetime.

For 2025 the CRA puts it at 14.5% of those costs, a maximum of $7,250. The $7,500 in many articles is 15% of the same $50,000, the rate before 2025-07-01.

Planning an accessible bathroom with Dream Touch

Dream Touch builds accessible bathrooms across Ottawa from one office, Suite 210 at 33 Roydon Place. We do the design, the permit drawings, the City application and the inspection bookings in-house. When an occupational therapist is guiding a family, we build to the OT's recommendations.

Read how we rebuilt an accessible primary bathroom in Orléans, or see our page on accessible home renovations in Ottawa for ramps, stair lifts and the rest of our barrier-free work.

Sources

• Canada Revenue Agency, Line 31285, Home accessibility expenses (tax year 2025, page dated 2026-07-24), read 2026-10-14
• Canada Revenue Agency, Tax rates and income brackets, 2026 and 2025, read 2026-10-14
• Department of Finance Canada, Report on Federal Tax Expenditures 2026, part 6, Home Accessibility Tax Credit, read 2026-10-14
• Parliament of Canada, Bill C-15, Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1, as assented to 2026-03-26, section 42
• Canada Revenue Agency, Line 45355, Multigenerational home renovation tax credit and its Who can claim page, read 2026-10-14
• Government of Ontario, Ontario Seniors Care at Home Tax Credit (updated 2025-06-26), read 2026-10-14
• Champlain Healthline, Home and Vehicle Modification Program, March of Dimes Canada, read 2026-10-14
• City of Ottawa, Do I need a building permit? and Building permits: Frequently asked questions
• Electrical Safety Authority, Who can do electrical work at my property

Planning an accessible bathroom? Tell us who will use it, what their OT has recommended, and whether you plan to claim the credit, and we will plan the room around that. Get in touch here or call (613) 862-4555, Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Frequently asked questions