In the annual tax return for 2020, the taxpayer may benefit from a deduction from income for expenses related to rehabilitation activities, incurred in the tax year by a taxpayer who is a disabled person or a taxpayer who is dependent on disabled persons.
For the purposes of rehabilitation relief, a disabled person is a person who has:
- A decision on qualifying by the adjudicating bodies to one of the three degrees of disability, specified in separate regulations or
- A decision granting a pension for total or partial inability to work, a training pension or a social pension, or
- A certificate of disability, issued on the basis of separate regulations, if the person is under 16 years old.
Expenses qualifying for deductions
Depending on which deduction mechanism can be used, expenses for rehabilitation purposes and expenses related to facilitating the performance of life activities can be divided into three categories:
1. Unlimited expenses (in this case, the entire amount of the expenses can be deducted from the income) incurred for:
- Adaption and equipment of apartments and residential buildings according to the needs resulting from disability;
- Adapting motor vehicles to the needs resulting from disability;
- Purchase and repair of individual equipment, devices and technical tools necessary for rehabilitation and facilitating the performance of life activities in accordance with the needs resulting from disability, with the exception of household appliances;
- Purchase of publications and training materials (aids) according to the needs resulting from the disability;
- Payment for the stay on a rehabilitation camp;
- Payment for treatment in a spa facility, for a stay in a medical rehabilitation facility, care and treatment facilities as well as nursing and care facilities, payment for rehabilitation treatments;
- Home nursing care for a disabled person in the period of a chronic disease that makes it impossible to move and care services provided for disabled people in the 1st disability group;
- Payment for a sign language interpreter;
- Summer camps and camps for disabled children and adolescents as well as children of disabled people who are under 25 years old.
- A paid, necessary transport for the needed medical and rehabilitation treatments:
- a disabled person in an ambulance for medical transport;
- a disabled person included in the 1st or 2nd disability group and disabled children up to 16 years of age - also by other means of transport than an ambulance for medical transport;
- Paid travel by public transport related to the stay:
- On a rehabilitation camp;
- In spa treatment facilities, curative, care and treatment and nursing and care rehabilitation;
- At summer camps and camps for disabled children and adolescents and children of disabled people under 25 years old.
2. Limited expenses (in their case, a part of the expenses can be deducted from the income) incurred on:
- Payment for guides for bind people of the 1st or 2nd disability group and persons with locomotor disabilities included in the 1st disability group in the amount not exceeding 2,280 PLN in the tax year;
- Maintenance by blind and visually impaired persons included in the 1st or 2nd disability group and persons with musculoskeletal disabilities included in the 1st disability group, of an assistance dog, referred to in the Act on vocational and social rehabilitation and employment of disabled persons, in an amount not exceeding 2,280 PLN in the tax year.
- Use of a passenger car owned (jointly owned) by a disabled person classified as disability group I or II or a taxpayer who has a dependent on a disabled person classified as disability group I or II or disabled children who are under 16 years old, for the purposes of necessary transport for the necessary therapeutic and rehabilitation treatments - in the amount not exceeding 2,280 PLN in the tax year.
3. Expenses over the limit of 100 PLN (in their case, the difference between the actual expenses in a given month and the amount of 100 PLN may be deducted from the income), which were incurred for drugs if the specialist doctor determines that the disabled person should use certain drugs (permanently or temporarily).
As a rule, other expenses not listed above do not qualify for deductions under the rehabilitation allowance.
Guardian of a disabled person and rehabilitation relief
The deduction of rehabilitation relief may also be used by a taxpayer who is dependent on the following disabled persons: a spouse, own and adopted children, foreign children accepted for upbringing, stepchildren, parents, spouse’s parents, siblings, stepfather, stepmother, son-in-law and son-in-law - if the income of these disabled persons do not exceed twelve times the amount of the social pension specified in the Act of 27th June 2003, on the social pension in the amount applicable in December of the tax year. Income does not include child support and care allowance, supplementary benefit for people incapable of living independently and one-time cash benefit for old-age and disability pensioners (13 old-age pensions). In 2020, the amount of this income is 14 400 PLN. In this case, the evidence of costs incurred may relate to the guardian (e.g. invoices may be issued in his name and surname).
Documents
The amount of expenses is determined on the basis of documents confirming their incurrence (invoices, bills, receipt - combined with the taxpayer’s statement on the expense), except for:
- Payment of guides for blind people of the 1st or 2nd disability group and persons with locomotor disabilities included in the 1st disability group, in the amount not exceeding 2 280 PLN in the tax year,
- Keeping an assistance dog - up to 2 280 PLN,
- Use of a passenger car owned (jointly owned) by a person or a taxpayer who has a dependent on a disabled person or a disabled child who is under 16 years old - the limit is independent of the documentation and the deduction is up to 2 280 PLN.
In the above three cases, the taxpayer must additionally:
- Indicate the name and surname of the person who was paid for the performance of the guide;
- Show a certificate confirming the status of an assistance dog.
In 2020, however there is no obligation to present a document confirming the order and completion of the necessary therapeutic and rehabilitation treatments.
Refinancing of expenses
The above-mentioned expenses are deductible from income, if they have not been financed (co-financed) entirely from the resources of the company fund for rehabilitation of disabled people, company activity fund, the State Fund for Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons or from the resources of the National Health Fund, company social benefits fund, or have not been returned to the taxpayer in any form.
In the event that the expenses were partially financed (co-financed) from these funds (means), the deduction is made of the difference between the expenses incurred and the amount financed (co-financed) from these funds (means) or returned in any form.
What else is worth knowing
Rehabilitation relief is a deduction from income. Hence, if the taxpayer’s income does not allow to deduct the expenses incurred by the taxpayer in a given tax year, he will not be able to deduct them in the tax return for the next year (subsequent years). Therefore, if the taxpayer expects that the amount of expenses incurred by him will exceed the amount of income for a given year, it is worth considering in advance whether or not to postpone the expenditure of certain amounts to the beginning of the next year (if it is possible).
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