There are lots of great reasons to make your website ADA Compliant. So what’s stopping you?
Would a tax credit for website ADA compliance costs or a tax deduction for website ADA compliance costs help make your decision a bit easier?
Note: The information on this page is informational and not to be considered tax advice. For tax information regarding your particular situation, please consult your tax professional.
What Does it Cost to Make Your Website ADA Compliant?
Making a website ADA compliant the usual way is a meticulous, detail-oriented and highly technical task, and can cost many thousands, potentially tens-of-thousands of dollars, even for a very small website. Sometimes, it can cost as much as the initial website development. And other times, a site cannot be made compliant at all and needs to be totally rebuilt at a cost that can be more than double the original website.
Our method uses Artificial Intelligence for some of its work and generally costs a fraction of other methods. Still, it’s sometimes more than a business wants to invest in protecting itself from potential litigation.
Whatever the cost, the Federal Government is willing to pay as much as half the cost…maybe even more.
Get Your Tax Credit For Website ADA Compliance Costs
The Americans with Disabilities Act actually altered the Tax Code. According to the ADA website, “Section 44 of the IRS Code allows a tax credit for small businesses and Section 190 of the IRS Code allows a tax deduction for all businesses.”
Businesses with $1,000,000 total revenue or less in the prior tax year, or 30 or fewer full-time employees are eligible for a Tax Credit for Website ADA Compliance Costs that can cover up to 50% of up to $10,000 in qualified expenses.
In other words, if the cost of remediating your website is over $10,000 (see details below), you may be eligible to receive a tax credit for your business of up to $5,000.
According to Randy Michel, CPA with Wong Holland LLP, in Woodland Hills, California, “If you spent over $500 in making your website ADA Compliant, or maintaining that compliance, or even if you built a new website because your old one was not ADA compliant, this tax-credit provision of the ADA is like getting free money from the U.S. Government.”
To apply for the tax credit for website ADA compliance, consult your Tax Advisor. He or she will direct you to IRS Form 8826, the “Disabled Access Credit” form, which you will attach to your tax return. Among tax forms, this is one may be the simplest tax form ever created by the IRS.
It requires you fill in just eight numbers, and the IRS has already filled in two of them for you. You enter your total costs to comply with the ADA. According to the Form 8826 instructions, “For purposes of the credit, these expenditures are amounts paid or incurred by the eligible small business to comply with applicable requirements under the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-336) as in effect on November 5, 1990.”
The first $250 of your expenses are not included in the calculation, and the maximum allowable expenses you can claim are $10,000. Those are two of the numbers the IRS has placed on the form already. So whatever you spend beyond $250, up to $10,000, gets multiplied by 50%, and that is your tax credit for website ADA compliance, up to a maximum of $5,000.
Randy Michel adds, “Talk to your tax professional for your specific situation for the prior years’ taxes, and if you haven’t used this tax credit in prior years, you might even be able to amend your returns going back as far as 3 years ago.”
Tax Deduction for Website ADA Compliance Costs
Not only might you be eligible for a Tax Credit, but your business might also be eligible for a Tax Deduction for website ADA compliance, too. According to the IRS, the ADA tax deduction is available to all businesses with a maximum deduction of $15,000 per year. So even if you don’t qualify for the tax credit, you may still qualify for the tax deduction.
And according to this ADA Tax Incentive Publication, the Tax Deduction and Tax Credit can be used together if your total eligible ADA compliance expenses exceed $10,250. For example, if you spent more than $10,250 on your website ADA compliance expenses (which gives you a $5,000 tax credit), then any eligible expenses over that $10,250 would be eligible for the tax deduction for website ADA compliance. (Please consult your tax professional for your specific situation.)
No More Reasons?
It just so happens that many of our ADA compliance services are well below the $10,250 amount, which means that about half of your website ADA Compliance costs would be paid for by the Federal Government through the tax credit or Tax Deduction for website ADA compliance.
So now there are no reasons left to not make your website ADA compliant.
Contact us today by calling us at 818-592-6370 or filling out our Website Risk Assessment form.
Either way, we will evaluate your website, assess your risks for both a Website Accessibility Lawsuit and Privacy Compliance issues, and answer any questions you may have. Do it today, and Let Someone Else Be The Target™.
