Disabled Access Tax Credit (Form 8826): A Web Access Guide

If your small business paid for a web accessibility audit and remediation this year, part of that cost may come back to you as a federal tax credit. The Disabled Access Credit, claimed on IRS Form 8826, was written to help small businesses cover the cost of complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act — and web accessibility work can map onto its statutory language. This guide walks through who qualifies, how much the credit is worth, exactly how to file, and — the part most vendor guides quietly skip — where the eligibility of web accessibility spending is genuinely nuanced rather than automatic.

This is general information, not tax advice. Tax outcomes depend on your specific facts, your prior-year figures, and current IRS forms and instructions. Confirm everything below with a licensed CPA or tax professional before you file. Inclusify does not provide tax advice.

What the Disabled Access Credit is

The Disabled Access Credit is a federal tax credit under Internal Revenue Code Section 44. Congress created it as part of the wave of legislation surrounding the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. The ADA requires many businesses to make their goods, services, and facilities accessible — and Section 44 offsets some of that cost for smaller businesses that would otherwise struggle to absorb it.

The credit is claimed on IRS Form 8826, Disabled Access Credit. It is not a standalone refund; it feeds into Form 3800, the General Business Credit, which aggregates most federal business credits before they reduce your tax bill. It is a non-refundable credit — it can reduce your tax liability to zero, but it will not generate a refund beyond the tax you owe. Unused amounts are not lost, though; they carry over (more on that below).

Who qualifies: the "eligible small business" test

The credit is only for an eligible small business. To meet that definition, your business must have satisfied either of these tests in the prior tax year:

• Gross receipts of $1,000,000 or less, or
• No more than 30 full-time employees.

You only need to meet one of the two. A business with $4M in receipts but 20 full-time staff can still qualify on the employee test; a five-person shop with high revenue can qualify on neither and would be out. Note that the test looks at the prior tax year, not the year you incur the expense.

For this purpose, a full-time employee generally means someone employed at least 30 hours per week for 20 or more calendar weeks in the year. Because definitions and thresholds can be refined, verify the current wording in the Form 8826 instructions with your accountant.

How much it's worth

The math is a single formula with two boundaries. The credit equals 50% of your eligible access expenditures that exceed $250 but do not exceed $10,250. In plain terms:

• The first $250 of eligible spend earns nothing (it's a floor).
• Spending is only counted up to $10,250 (a ceiling).
• So the creditable band is the slice from $250 to $10,250 — a maximum of $10,000 of spend.
• 50% of that $10,000 gives a maximum credit of $5,000 per year.

You can claim it every year in which you incur qualifying expenditures — it is not a one-time credit. Here is how the formula plays out at different spending levels:

Notice the last two rows: once your eligible spend reaches $10,250, you are already at the $5,000 maximum. Spending beyond that does not increase the credit — but it may still be useful under the Section 190 deduction described later.

What counts as an eligible access expenditure

Eligible access expenditures are amounts paid or incurred to enable a business to comply with the ADA. The statutory categories include:

• Removing architectural, communication, physical, or transportation barriers that prevent a business from being accessible to, or usable by, individuals with disabilities;
• Providing qualified interpreters or other methods of making aurally delivered materials available to people with hearing impairments;
• Providing qualified readers, taped texts, and other methods of making visually delivered materials available to people with visual impairments;
• Acquiring or modifying equipment or devices for individuals with disabilities; and
• Providing other similar services, modifications, materials, or equipment.

Two phrases matter most for a website: removing communication barriers and providing auxiliary aids and services. An inaccessible website is, functionally, a communication barrier — screen-reader users, keyboard-only users, and people with low vision are shut out of content and transactions. That is precisely the kind of barrier the ADA and Section 44 contemplate.

Does web accessibility work qualify?

Here is where honesty matters, because most vendor guides state flatly that "our product qualifies." The accurate answer is more careful.

A professional accessibility audit plus remediation is a strong candidate. Fixing missing alt text, unlabeled form fields, poor contrast, and keyboard traps is a textbook example of "removing communication barriers" and providing "similar services or modifications" to comply with the ADA. When you can show a documented pre-remediation state and the work done to fix it, you are on the firmest ground the statute offers for a website.

But two important limits apply:

• The spend must enable compliance. IRS guidance indicates the expenditure has to be for the purpose of complying with the ADA. A business that is already in compliance generally cannot claim the credit for a routine upgrade. That means a first-year audit and remediation of a site with real accessibility defects is far stronger than a renewal fee for a site that is already reasonably accessible.
• No IRS ruling names "accessibility SaaS" as eligible. There is no published IRS ruling that specifically blesses an accessibility software subscription as an eligible access expenditure. Treating a subscription as creditable is an interpretation, and its strength depends entirely on documentation — that it is doing genuine remediation or providing auxiliary aids, not just monitoring a site that is already compliant.
• A brand-new site or full redesign is generally excluded. Section 44 does not cover expenses for new construction, and the analogous logic tends to exclude building a brand-new website or a ground-up redesign — that is treated more like creating a new facility than removing a barrier from an existing one.

Expenditure mapping

Use this as a starting framework, not a ruling. Your CPA has the final say on your facts.

An Inclusify audit and remediation plan may qualify as an eligible access expenditure. Confirm the treatment with your tax advisor, then start a free scan to see where your site stands today. We can never promise a subscription equals a guaranteed credit — but a documented audit and fix is the kind of spend Section 44 was written for.

How to file Form 8826, step by step

The form's line logic follows the formula directly:

1. Total your eligible access expenditures for the tax year.
2. Subtract the $250 floor. Only spending above $250 counts.
3. Cap the result at $10,000. This reflects the $250–$10,250 band; anything above $10,250 of spend is ignored for the credit.
4. Multiply by 50%. The product is your Disabled Access Credit for the year (maximum $5,000).
5. Carry the amount to Form 3800, the General Business Credit, where it combines with your other business credits and is applied against your tax liability.

Always work from the current-year form and instructions — download them from the official IRS About Form 8826 page. The dollar thresholds here are statutory, but you should confirm the exact line references and any inflation or definitional updates for the year you are filing.

Stacking with the Section 190 deduction

Section 44 has a companion incentive: the Section 190 Barrier Removal Deduction. It lets a business deduct up to $15,000 per year for qualified expenses of removing architectural and transportation barriers — and unlike the credit, it is available to businesses of any size.

You can use both in the same year, but never on the same dollar. The standard sequence is: apply the credit first, then deduct the remaining eligible spend under Section 190. Here is a combined example for a business that incurs $18,000 of eligible barrier-removal spend:

The result: a $5,000 credit and a $7,750 deduction from the same project, with no dollar counted twice. Your CPA will confirm the exact treatment of the untaxed $250 floor and how the two interact on your return.

Carryforward and carryback

Because the Disabled Access Credit flows into the General Business Credit, it inherits that regime's carryover rules. If you cannot use the full credit this year — for example, because your tax liability is too low — the unused portion can generally be carried back 1 year and forward up to 20 years. So a credit is rarely wasted; it simply waits for a year with enough liability to absorb it.

State credits

Several states offer their own version of a disabled-access incentive on top of the federal credit. California, for instance, mirrors the federal credit through FTB Form 3548, Disabled Access Credit for Eligible Small Businesses. Rules, caps, and definitions vary by state and do not always track the federal figures. Check with your accountant whether your state offers an equivalent credit and how it stacks with Form 8826.

Common mistakes

• Double-dipping the same dollar. You cannot claim the credit and the Section 190 deduction on the identical expense. Apply the credit first, deduct only what's left.
• Assuming a subscription alone guarantees eligibility. No IRS ruling says an accessibility SaaS subscription is creditable. Eligibility depends on the work being genuine barrier removal or an auxiliary aid to enable compliance — and on your documentation.
• Claiming for an already-compliant site. The spend must enable ADA compliance. Routine upkeep of a site that already meets the mark is a weak claim.
• Poor documentation. If you cannot show what was inaccessible and what you paid to fix it, you cannot defend the credit. This is the single most common failure.
• Ignoring the small-business test. Confirm you met the prior-year receipts or employee test before you rely on the credit.

Documentation checklist

Keep a clean file for each year you claim. At minimum:

• Invoices and a statement of work describing the audit and remediation in specific terms.
• The accessibility audit report showing the pre-remediation state — the barriers that existed before you spent the money.
• Before-and-after evidence of the fixes (issue logs, re-test results, screenshots, or a follow-up scan).
• Payment records proving the amounts were actually paid or incurred in the tax year.
• A short memo tying the spend to ADA compliance — why the work removed a communication barrier or provided an auxiliary aid.

Frequently asked questions

Does web accessibility software qualify for the Disabled Access Credit?

It can, but it is not automatic. Audit and remediation work maps well onto "removing communication barriers" and is a strong candidate. A recurring subscription is more conditional — no IRS ruling names accessibility SaaS as eligible, so its treatment depends on whether it performs genuine remediation or provides auxiliary aids, and on your documentation. A subscription is never a guaranteed credit. Confirm your specific case with a CPA.

Can I claim Form 8826 every year?

Yes. The credit is available in any year you incur qualifying eligible access expenditures, up to the $5,000 annual maximum. It is not a one-time benefit. But each year's spend must independently meet the "enable ADA compliance" standard — you cannot keep claiming for a site that is already compliant.

Can I use the credit and the Section 190 deduction together?

Yes, in the same year — but not on the same dollar. Apply the Disabled Access Credit first (up to $5,000), then take the Section 190 barrier-removal deduction (up to $15,000) on the remaining eligible spend. The credit is size-limited to eligible small businesses; the deduction is open to businesses of any size.

Web accessibility is worth doing on its own merits — it widens your audience, reduces legal exposure, and improves the experience for everyone. The tax incentives are a reason to act sooner. An Inclusify audit and remediation plan may qualify as an eligible access expenditure — confirm with your tax advisor, then start a free scan. When you're ready to plan the remediation itself, our pricing lays out the options.

Reminder: this article is general information, not tax advice. The figures cited ($250 floor, $10,250 ceiling, $5,000 maximum credit, $15,000 Section 190 deduction, the small-business tests, and the 1-year-back / 20-year-forward carryover) are statutory under current law, but you must confirm the current-year Form 8826 and its instructions and apply them to your own facts. Consult a licensed CPA or tax professional before claiming any credit or deduction.