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Get ReportADA Accessibility Tax Credit: How Businesses Can Save Up to $5,000
The federal Disabled Access Credit (IRS Section 44) lets eligible small businesses claim up to $5,000 per year for money spent improving physical and digital accessibility. Below, we’ll provide more information on the credit, including what businesses qualify, which expenses count, and how to claim it on your tax return.
Author: Missy Jensen, Senior SEO Copywriter
Published: 03/31/2026
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The ADA accessibility tax credit is one of the top tax incentives for digital accessibility, and can save small businesses up to $5,000.
While building an accessible website can help your bottom line, it also increases your business’s reach, expanding your potential customer base to the roughly 70 million U.S. adults(opens in a new tab) living with a disability.
Below, we’ll focus on how the federal Disabled Access Credit(opens in a new tab) (the official name used by the IRS) can apply to accessibility improvements on your digital content. You’ll see which businesses qualify, which website expenses qualify, and how you can potentially claim up to $5,000 in credit for improving accessibility.
What is the ADA Accessibility Tax Credit?
The ADA accessibility tax credit (formally called the Disabled Access Credit under Section 44 of the Internal Revenue Code) is a federal, non-refundable tax credit that directly reduces the tax bill of eligible small businesses by up to $5,000 per year for money spent improving accessibility for people with disabilities.
Unlike a deduction, which only reduces your taxable income, a credit reduces your actual tax bill dollar for dollar, making it a valuable available to small businesses. It’s important to note that accessibility in this context includes both physical and digital barriers, meaning work on websites, web applications, and mobile apps can qualify alongside physical changes.
The credit is a federal incentive, and some states also offer their own accessibility programs or financing options, though those operate separately. Larger organizations that don't meet the small-business criteria often look to deductions such as Section 190 to remove barriers.
Small businesses that qualify for the credit may also use the Section 190 deduction for expenses that exceed the credit's ceiling, as long as the same expenses aren't counted twice.
Business Benefits Beyond Tax Savings
The financial benefit of the Disabled Access Credit is only part of the picture. Accessibility improvements to your website produce compounding returns that outlast the tax year in which you claim them. Here’s how:
Search visibility: Accessibility best practices like descriptive alt text, logical heading structures, and clear link labels align directly with what search engines reward, making accessibility investment more efficient than most standalone SEO work.
A larger customer base: The CDC estimates more than 1 in 4 U.S. adults have a form of disability(opens in a new tab), representing millions of potential customers who actively seek out businesses with accessible digital experiences.
Improved experience for everyone: Features built for people with disabilities consistently prove useful for all users. Captions help viewers in noisy environments, readable typography reduces friction, and clear navigation improves conversion rates across the board.
Who Qualifies for the ADA Website Accessibility Tax Credit?
This incentive is intentionally limited to small businesses. To qualify, your company has to meet at least one of the two criteria (you don’t need to satisfy both):
Revenue test: Prior year gross receipts of $1 million or less
Staffing test: 30 or fewer full-time employees, where full-time means at least 30 hours per week for 20 or more weeks during the year
Common business types that may qualify include S corporations, LLCs taxed as partnerships or corporations, C corporations, and sole proprietorships filing Schedule C. Partnerships and multi-member LLCs typically claim the credit at the entity level, with the benefit flowing through to owners.
You can use the table below to quickly assess whether your business may be eligible, then confirm with your tax professional before filing:
Expenses That Count Toward Your Credit
The IRS is looking for work that directly reduces barriers for people with disabilities. For websites and digital properties, qualifying expenses generally must be reasonable and necessary to improve access, meaning redesigning a site for aesthetics or marketing purposes would not count toward the credit.
Below are some expenses that may qualify and those that do not.
Digital Accessibility Expenses that Typically Qualify:
Accessibility audits that assess your site or app against WCAG 2.2 Level AA standards.
Professional remediation work that fixes code, structure, or content to remove barriers (e.g., keyboard navigation fixes, missing alt text, or unlabeled form fields).
A dedicated digital accessibility platform that helps identify and address accessibility issues on an ongoing basis.
Accessibility testing conducted with people with disabilities to validate real-world usability.
Auxiliary aids and services, including sign language interpreters for video content, live captions, audio description tracks, and converting PDFs or documents into screen reader-compatible formats.
Digital Accessibility Expenses that Do Not Qualify:
Routine website maintenance that doesn't improve accessibility, such as updating images for a campaign or publishing standard blog posts, falls outside the scope of the credit
General site redesign work also doesn't qualify unless specific line items can be clearly tied to removing access barriers, such as ARIA improvements or focus state fixes
One important note: Automated overlay tools that inject a single script to claim accessibility compliance are highly unlikely to qualify. If the underlying code and structure still contain barriers, it's difficult to argue that the spending genuinely removed them. The IRS is looking for documented, substantive improvements, not surface-level fixes.
How to Calculate Your Savings
Before you start filing, it’s helpful to understand how the accessibility tax credit calculation works so you can forecast your potential benefit and plan your spending accordingly.
According to the IRS, the Disabled Access Credit allows eligible small businesses to claim 50% of qualified accessibility expenditures between $250 and $10,000 in a given year, for a maximum tax credit of $5,000.
Here's how the math works, step by step:
Add up your qualified accessibility costs for the year. Include only reasonable and necessary accessibility expenses. For this example, we'll use $5,250 as the total qualified spend.
Subtract the $250 base amount. The IRS excludes the first $250 of expenses from the calculation. It's a non-qualifying floor built into the credit formula. So, $5,250 minus $250 leaves $5,000 of eligible expenditures.
Apply the 50% rate. Fifty percent of $5,000 produces a $2,500 credit that directly reduces your federal tax liability.
Note the annual ceiling. The credit maxes out at $5,000, which means you'd need at least $10,250 in qualified spending to reach it. Any expenses above $10,000 don't count toward the credit, though they may be eligible for other deductions.
The table below can help you quickly estimate your credit based on planned spend:
But what happens if you can't use the full credit this year?
If your credit exceeds your federal tax liability for the year, you're not out of luck.
The Disabled Access Credit can typically be carried back one year or forward up to 20 years, meaning accessibility work you do today can still pay off on a future return. This also makes low-profit years a reasonable time to invest in accessibility improvements, so you're positioned to use the credit when your tax liability increases.
A Guide to Filing IRS Form 8826
IRS Form 8826(opens in a new tab) is the form you use to formally claim the Disabled Access Credit. It's a short form (most of the work happens in Part I), but it must be completed accurately and supported by solid documentation before you file.
Here’s a quick overview of how to complete the form:
Step 1: Gather Your Documentation
Before you touch the form, organize the records that substantiate your claim. For digital accessibility work, strong documentation includes:
Invoices and statements of work that clearly describe the accessibility improvements performed.
Accessibility audit reports showing which WCAG 2.2 Level AA barriers existed before the work began.
Before-and-after screenshots or technical logs showing that specific issues were resolved.
Receipts or payment confirmations tied to each qualifying expense.
The more clearly your records connect each dollar spent to a specific accessibility barrier removed, the stronger your claim.
Step 2: Complete Part I - Qualified Expenditures
Enter your total qualified accessibility costs on Line 1. The form then walks you through subtracting the $250 non-qualifying base amount on Line 2, leaving your eligible expenditures on Line 3. Line 4 applies the 50% rate to produce your credit amount.
Step 3: Review the Resulting Credit Figure
The amount on Line 4 is your Disabled Access Credit for the year. If your total qualified spend was $10,250 or more, this number will be $5,000, the annual maximum. Keep a copy of your underlying calculation with your tax records.
Step 4: Transfer the Credit to Form 3800
Form 3800(opens in a new tab) is the IRS's General Business Credit form, and it aggregates multiple business credits into a single figure that flows into your main tax return. The Form 8826 instructions specify exactly where to carry your credit amount into Form 3800. If you're claiming other business credits in the same year, your tax preparer will handle this consolidation step.
Step 5: Retain Records with Your Return
Store all contracts, invoices, audit reports, and accessibility documentation for at least as long as you keep the related tax return, and longer if you're carrying the credit forward to future years. In the event of an audit, your ability to demonstrate the barriers that existed and how each expense addressed them substantiates the claim.
Many businesses coordinate with a CPA or enrolled agent for this step, especially in years when they’re claiming multiple business credits.
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Common Mistakes to Avoid When Filing
Because the Disabled Access Credit interacts with other deductions and business incentives, filing errors are more common than you might expect, especially for first-time claimants. These are the three issues that come up most often for website-related claims:
Mistake #1: Double-Dipping on the Same Expenses
The credit and a business expense deduction can't both apply to the exact same dollars without adjustment. For example, if you claim the credit on $5,000 of accessibility expenses, you need to reduce your deduction for those same expenses by $5,000. Your tax preparer should coordinate the treatment of qualifying expenses across forms to make sure the math is consistent.
Rushing this step is one of the more common errors CPAs flag on business credit returns.
Mistake #2: Counting Overlay Tools as Qualifying Expenses
Automated overlay products that claim to make a site accessible by injecting a single script are unlikely to qualify for the credit. If the underlying code and structure still contain barriers after the overlay is applied, there's no substantive case that the spending removed access barriers, which is what the IRS requires. Qualifying expenses must be tied to documented structural improvements, not surface-level fixes.
Mistake #3: Claiming the Credit for Standard New Site Builds
The credit is designed to improve access to existing digital properties, not to cover the baseline cost of building a new site. If you're redesigning or launching a new site, work with your developer or accessibility partner to separate line items that directly address barriers (such as keyboard navigation fixes, ARIA landmark improvements, or focus state corrections) from general design, content, or development work that belongs outside the credit calculation.
Clear scoping and itemized invoices make this distinction much easier to defend.
Maintaining Compliance Year Over Year
The Disabled Access Credit is calculated annually as websites and apps change constantly. New content, features, and third-party integrations can reintroduce accessibility barriers even on sites that were recently fixed.
Here’s the reality: A one-time fix is rarely enough. Here’s how to build a sustainable year-over-year approach across multiple tax years:
Schedule annual accessibility audits: Measure your site against WCAG 2.2 Level AA each year to identify new barriers introduced by content updates, redesigns, or new functionality.
Plan phased fixes: Rather than addressing everything at once, structure fix work so each tax year includes well-documented qualifying expenses. This keeps your spending within the $250 to $10,000 window where the credit applies and helps you consistently reach the maximum $5,000 credit year after year.
Keep documentation current: Maintain a running record of audit reports, fix invoices, and before-and-after documentation so each year's claim is easy to substantiate.
Continuous monitoring tools can help flag new issues as they're introduced rather than waiting for an annual audit to surface them. The result is a tighter feedback loop between development and accessibility, lower remediation costs over time, and a stronger paper trail for annual credit claims.
Get Started: Your Accessibility Tax Credit Checklist
The sooner you start documenting qualifying accessibility work, the better positioned you'll be to claim the full $5,000 credit for the current tax year. Use this checklist to get moving.
Audit your current digital experience: Schedule an accessibility audit of your website and any apps against WCAG 2.2 AA standards to get a clear picture of the barriers that currently exist and the cost of fixing them.
Get itemized quotes for accessibility fixes: Ask vendors to clearly separate accessibility-specific work from general development or design work in their proposals. Itemized invoices are what make qualifying expenses easy to substantiate at filing time.
Prioritize high-impact fixes first: Start with issues that most affect users with disabilities, such as keyboard traps, unlabeled form fields, and missing alt text on key images, then plan follow-up phases for the remainder.
Align with your tax advisor early: Share your accessibility invoices, audit reports, and fix documentation with your CPA or enrolled agent before filing season so they have time to properly reflect costs on Form 8826 and your business return.
Every item on this checklist serves two purposes: it improves the user experience for users with disabilities, and builds the documented record the IRS requires to claim the credit. Most businesses struggle with the second part, which is where AudioEye comes in.
At AudioEye, we help businesses build and maintain accessible digital experiences through powerful automation, hands-on audits performed by experts and users with disabilities, and ongoing monitoring services that generate the documented, substantive improvements the IRS requires to qualify. With AudioEye, we help you create accessible experiences not just one, but on an ongoing basis.
Schedule a demo to see how we can help you maximize your credit before the end of the tax year.
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