Before you start
What actually happens, start to finish.
One form, four steps, and two people who have to fill it in. Nobody lays it out that way, so here it is — including the step that costs money and the step that decides the outcome.
The short version
getowed does not apply for you. It tells you what the form is really asking, and helps you walk into the appointment with your answers already written down.
The application is between you, your practitioner and the Canada Revenue Agency. We are not part of it, we never see it, and we cannot make it go faster.
What we can do is prevent the two things that sink most applications: never finding out you might qualify, and arriving at the appointment with nothing prepared.
The four steps
The third one decides the outcome. Everything before it is preparation for it.
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Find out whether it is worth applying
You · about four minutes
The check asks the same things the form asks, in everyday words. Then it shows you what the law says about your answers — quoted, with a link to the section it comes from. It never decides for you. And if your answers do not point anywhere yet, it says so plainly, rather than sending you to a doctor for nothing.
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Fill in your half of the form
You
The form is Form T2201, the Disability Tax Credit Certificate. Part A is yours. It asks who you are. It also asks who should receive the credit if you do not owe enough tax to use it yourself. That can be a spouse, a parent, or another family member who supports you. The form can be submitted online or by mail.
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A practitioner fills in the other half
A doctor, a nurse practitioner, or the specialist who already treats you
Part B is the medical part, and it is where applications are won and lost. The form does not ask what you have. It asks what you cannot do, how long it takes you on an ordinary day, and how often. All of that is counted with your medication and your equipment, not without them. Most refusals come from this section being answered with a diagnosis.
Take the sheet with you. It puts your own answers beside the question the form is actually asking, so your practitioner spends the appointment writing rather than interviewing you. A shorter appointment is also a cheaper one.
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Send it, and wait
The Canada Revenue Agency
You submit the form and they decide. The answer arrives as a letter — a notice of determination — saying yes or no, and for which years. We do not print how long the wait is, because it moves. The official page carries the current time.
The official Disability Tax Credit page (opens in a new tab)
Two things the CRA changed this year
Neither changes who qualifies. Both can get a complete, honest application refused for a reason that has nothing to do with you.
A T2201 dated before 2023 is no longer accepted
Since 8 September 2026 the Canada Revenue Agency has refused any version of the form dated before 2023. Check the date printed on the copy you have — and on any blank copies your practitioner keeps — before the appointment. If yours is older, download the current one and start with that, because an application on the old form will not be processed.
The “submit documents” section no longer takes applications
Since 14 July 2026 you cannot send a Disability Tax Credit application through the “submit documents” section of your CRA account. Apply using the online form in your account, or mail the paper form to your tax centre. That section is now only for replying when the CRA has written to you and given you a case number.
Who is allowed to sign it
Almost everyone is told “your doctor”. The law is wider than that, and it matters if you do not have a family doctor or are waiting months for one.
A doctor or nurse practitioner can complete any section of the form. That is always true, and it is the answer if none of the rows below fit you.
But for these, the specialist you may already be seeing can sign it themselves — at an appointment you already have, with the test results already in front of them:
| If you are applying because of | This person can also sign |
|---|---|
| Seeing, even with glasses or contact lenses | optometrist |
| Hearing someone you know, in a quiet room | audiologist |
| Being understood when you speak, in a quiet room | speech-language pathologist |
| Preparing a simple meal and eating it | occupational therapist |
| Dressing yourself | occupational therapist |
| Walking a short distance on flat ground | occupational therapist, physiotherapist |
| Everyday thinking — remembering, deciding, concentrating, or managing the day | psychologist |
| Bowel or bladder function | A doctor or nurse practitioner only |
Applying on two or more difficulties that add up together? An occupational therapist can sign that too, as long as the difficulties are among feeding, dressing and walking. Otherwise it is a doctor or nurse practitioner.
If you are applying because of life-sustaining therapy, it is a doctor or nurse practitioner. The Act names no specialist for that one, and we are not going to guess at it.
Any of them may charge to complete it, and none of them has to. Ask what it costs when you book — and ask whether they have filled one in before.
Who may certify what is set by the Income Tax Act, section 118.3 (opens in a new tab)
Then one of two things happens
Both are worth knowing about now, while you can still prepare for either.
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Approved
The credit can be applied to up to ten previous years. That is why an approval is often a refund, not only a change to next year’s taxes. Three other programs also require it before you can apply at all: the Canada Disability Benefit, the Registered Disability Savings Plan and the Child Disability Benefit. Each of those is its own application.
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Refused
A refusal is not the end of it, and the deadline to do something about it is almost certainly longer than you have been told. A great many refusals are overturned — usually by describing an ordinary day instead of a condition.
What it costs
getowed is free, and there is nothing to sign up for. Applying is free too — the Canada Revenue Agency charges nothing to consider your application.
There is one real cost, and it is better to know about it now than at the desk. Your practitioner may charge a fee for completing Part B. Filling in a form is not a medical service, so provincial health insurance usually does not cover it. Ask what the fee will be when you book.
If that fee is the thing standing in your way, say so out loud rather than giving up over it. Ask the clinic whether it can be reduced or waived, and ask a community health centre or a community legal clinic what they can do. It is a question worth asking.
Nobody should take a cut of this
Some companies advertise that they will handle all of this for 20 to 30 percent of whatever comes back. Every step on this page you can do yourself for nothing, and a community legal clinic will help you free. getowed never takes a percentage of anyone’s benefit, and we accept no referral fees.
What happens to what you type
There is no account, and we never ask for your name, your email address, or your diagnosis. While you are going through the check, your answers are kept in a small file on your own device. That is how the next screen knows what you said on the last one, and how the sheet for your doctor carries them.
When you finish, the answers themselves are recorded once, with nothing attached that could identify you. That is how we find out which question people give up on, which is how the wording gets better. Those records are deleted after 90 days.
What getowed is not
- Not the government. getowed is independent of the Canada Revenue Agency and of every provincial ministry, and nothing here is an official decision.
- Not legal or tax advice. It explains public programs in plain language. For advice about your own situation, a community legal clinic is free and knows more than we do.
- Not a substitute for your doctor. We never tell a practitioner what to write — only what the form is asking them.
That is the whole process
The first step takes about four minutes, and it is the one that tells you whether the rest is worth doing.