What receipts do I keep for the Home Accessibility Tax Credit in Ottawa?

The CRA asks you to keep documents that show, for each expense: the contractor's name and business address, their GST/HST number if they are registered, a description of the work done, the dates the work was carried out, and proof that you paid.

Keep the written agreement or contract, all invoices, and your payment records, whether that is a cancelled cheque, a credit card statement or a bank record. The CRA does not prescribe a single format, but every document should connect back to the work described and the amount paid.

A few points worth knowing

The credit lets an eligible person claim up to $20,000 of eligible expenses in a year. Where more than one qualifying individual shares a dwelling, the total for that dwelling is still $20,000, and the claim can be split among people who are entitled to claim it. The credit is not reduced by grants or forgivable loans from the federal or a provincial government, so if you also receive Ontario Renovates funding or a March of Dimes grant, you can still claim the eligible portion of your expenses.

For work done by a contractor, the eligible expenses are the amounts you paid for labour and materials. For do-it-yourself work, materials, fixture costs, equipment rentals, building plans and permit fees are eligible, but your own labour and tools are not. Work done by a relative is not eligible unless that relative is registered for GST/HST. If an expense also qualifies as a medical expense, you may claim it under both credits; the CRA sets the conditions for each.

Keep everything together: the signed contract, each invoice as it arrives, and the matching payment record. If the job runs across more than one tax year, note which invoices and payments fall in which year, since the $20,000 limit applies per year.

The CRA decides whether each expense qualifies; the program, not this site, makes that call. Amounts and rules here are checked September 2026.

When you have two written quotes in front of you, set them side by side and check that each one spells out what work is included, whether the permit is in the price, what patching and finishing is covered after the work is done, and the dates the contractor expects to start and finish.