Tax Policy for Canadians with Disabilities: A Reading List

The amount of research on tax policy for Canadians with disabilities is fairly limited. Moreover, a number of key publications (such as the 2004 Brown and Torjman report) are hard to find. Thus, for my own convenience, and that of other researchers, I have created a reading list. Publications on this list are divided into federal government documents, scholarly publications, think tank/other reports and tax forms. With regards to federal government documents, I have included some documents that are only tangentially relevant to tax policy, and have also uploaded copies of the relevant reports. 

Suggestions of other documents to include would be very welcome.

Federal Government Reports

Torjman, Sherri and Robert D Brown (2004) Disability Tax Fairness: Report of the Technical Advisory Committee on Tax Measures for Persons with Disabilities Ottawa: Department of Finance Canada  Download Sherri Torjman and Robert Brown, Disability Tax Fairness [Also available on this useful website: http://publications.gc.ca].

Department of Finance (2004) Tax Expenditures and Evaluations http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/F1-27-2004E.pdf [includes detailed report on the disability tax credit].

Love, James Barton, Laurie Beachell and Remy Girard (2006) A New Beginning: The Report of the Minister of Finance’s Expert Panel on Financial Security for Children with Severe Disabilities Ottawa: Department of Finance Canada   Download A New Beginning

Defining Disability: A Complex Issue - report prepared by the Office for Disability Issues, Human Resources Development Canada, 2003 Download Defining Disability A Complex Issue

Fredeen, Kenneth (2013) Rethinking DisAbility in the Private Sector – Report from the Panel on Labour Market Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/disability/consultations/rethinking_disabilities.shtml

 Scholarly articles:

Battisti, Michele, Jane Friesen, and Ross Hickey. "How Student Disability Classifications and Learning Outcomes Respond to Special Education Funding Rules: Evidence from British Columbia." Canadian Public Policy 38.2 (2012): 147-166. (not strictly speaking on-topic, but kind of neat).

Conti-Becker, Angela, Samantha Doralp, Nora Fayed, Crystal Kean, Raphael Lencucha, Rhysa Leyshon, Jackie Mersich, Shawn Robbins, and Philip C. Doyle. "A comparison of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health to the disability tax credit." Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy 74, no. 3 suppl (2007): 281-287.

David G. Duff, “Disability and the Income Tax” (2000) vol. 45, no. 4 McGill Law Journal 797-889 Ungated here.

Philipps, Lisa. "Disability, poverty, and the income tax: The case for refundable credits." Journal of Law and Social Policy 16 (2001). Ungated here.

Prince, Michael J. "Tax policy as social policy: Canadian tax assistance for people with disabilities." Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de Politiques (2001): 487-501.

[also numerous other publications, such as Prince, Michael J. Absent citizens: Disability politics and policy in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.]

Seto, Theodore P., and Sande L. Buhai. "Tax and Disability: Ability to Pay and the Taxation of Difference." University of Pennsylvania Law Review (2006): 1053-1145. Ungated here

 Smart, Michael and Mark Stabile (2006) “Tax Support for the Disabled in Canada: Economic Principles and Options for Reform” Canadian Tax Journal 54(2): 407-https://www.ctf.ca/ctfweb/Documents/PDF/2006ctj/06ctj2-smart.pdf

Also see the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies: http://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/index

Selected think tank/other reports

Mendelson, M., K. Battle, S. Torjman and E. Lightman. (2010). A Basic Income Plan for Canadians with Severe Disabilities. Ottawa: Caledon Institute of Social Policy, October. http://www.caledoninst.org/Publications/PDF/906ENG.pdf

Torjman, Sherri, 2014 Disability Policy Highlights Ottawa: Caledon Institute for Social Policy http://www.caledoninst.org/Publications/PDF/1041ENG.pdf 

 Tax Forms

 Income Tax Folio S1-F1-C2: Disability Tax Credit http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/tchncl/ncmtx/fls/s1/f1/s1-f1-c2-eng.html

 Form T2201 Disability Tax Credit Certificate (2014 tax year)  Download T2201-12e disability tax credit certificate

RC4064 Medical and Disability-Related Information - 2014  Download Rc4064-14e medical and disability related info

 

Comments

[Bob Smith]

This is a great resource, thanks.

[Frances Woolley]

Bob, thanks. The Brown and Torjman technical committee did something that was, in retrospect, somewhat unfortunate. They created a dedicated website, disabilitytax.ca, to host all of the materials related to their report. The website has not been maintained, and the so the only way to find the publications is through the handy (though, I suspect, little known) website http://publications.gc.ca.

[Shangwen]

Some information on tax policy in this book as well, which I remember reading once:

Federalism, Democracy and Disability Policy in Canada

Also Burton and Phipps 2009

Also, I'm not sure if searching under chronic disease would yield more. Depends on what qualifies as disability for taxation purposes, not my area.

[Majromax]

@ Frances:

> They created a dedicated website, disabilitytax.ca, to host all of the materials related to their report. The website has not been maintained, and the so the only way to find the publications is through the handy (though, I suspect, little known) website http://publications.gc.ca.

The website is also available through the Internet Archive (archive.org). The last-seen version in 2013 is https://web.archive.org/web/20131023064439/http://www.disabilitytax.ca/main-e.html (English). At a glance, it appears that the reports are also available.

[Frances Woolley]

Majromax, thanks for that, I sent the link to Sherri Torjman who seemed to appreciate it.

Shangwen, good suggestions, thank you.