Federal Form 8826 - Disabled Access Credit Instructions

General Instructions for Form 8826

What’s New

1. The tax liability limit is no longer figured on this form; instead, it must be figured on Form 3800, General Business Credit.
2. Taxpayers that are not partnerships or S corporations, and whose only source of this credit is from those pass-through entities, are not required to complete or file this form. Instead, they can report this credit directly on line 1g of Form 3800.
3. The IRS will revise this December 2006 version of the form only when necessary. Continue to use this version for tax years beginning after 2005 until a new revision is issued.

Purpose of Form

Eligible small businesses use Form 8826 to claim the disabled access credit. This credit is part of the general business credit.

Definitions

Eligible Small Business. For purposes of the credit, an eligible small business is any business or person that:

• Had gross receipts for the preceding tax year that did not exceed $1 million or had no more than 30 full-time employees during the preceding tax year and
• Elects (by filing Form 8826) to claim the disabled access credit for the tax year.

For purposes of the definition:

• Gross receipts are reduced by returns and allowances made during the tax year,
• An employee is considered full time if employed at least 30 hours per week for 20 or more calendar weeks in the tax year, and
• All members of the same controlled group and all persons under common control generally are considered to be one person—see section 44(d)(2).

Eligible Access Expenditures. 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.

Eligible access expenditures include amounts paid or incurred:

1. To remove barriers that prevent a business from being accessible to or usable by individuals with disabilities;
2. To provide qualified interpreters or other methods of making audio materials available to hearing-impaired individuals;
3. To provide qualified readers, taped texts, and other methods of making visual materials available to individuals with visual impairments; or
4. To acquire or modify equipment or devices for individuals with disabilities.

The expenditures must be reasonable and necessary to accomplish the above purposes.

Eligible expenditures do not include expenditures in 1 above that are paid or incurred in connection with any facility first placed in service after November 5, 1990.

Eligible access expenditures must meet those standards issued by the Secretary of the Treasury as agreed to by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board and set forth in regulations. See section 44(c) for other details.

Disability. For an individual, this means:

• A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities,
• A record of such an impairment, or
• Being regarded as having such an impairment.

Member of Controlled Group or Business Under Common Control

For purposes of figuring the credit, all members of a controlled group of corporations (as defined in section 52(a)) and all members of a group of businesses under common control (as defined in section 52(b)), are treated as a single taxpayer. As a member, compute your credit based on your proportionate share of eligible access expenditures giving rise to the group’s disabled access credit. Enter your share of the credit on line 6. Attach a statement showing how your share of the credit was figured, and write “See attached” next to the entry space for line 6.

Specific Instructions

Line 1

Enter total eligible access expenditures paid or incurred during the tax year. See Eligible Access Expenditures on page 1.

Line 6

Denial of double benefit. To the extent of the credit shown on line 6, the eligible access expenditures may not be claimed as a deduction in figuring taxable income, capitalized, or used in figuring any other credit.

Paperwork Reduction Act Notice.

We ask for the information on this form to carry out the Internal Revenue laws of the United States. You are required to give us the information. We need it to ensure that you are complying with these laws and to allow us to figure and collect the right amount of tax.

You are not required to provide the information requested on a form that is subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act unless the form displays a valid OMB control
number. Books or records relating to a form or its instructions must be retained as long as their contents may become material in the administration of any Internal Revenue law. Generally, tax returns and return information are confidential, as required by section 6103.

The time needed to complete and file this form will vary depending on individual circumstances. The estimated burden for individual taxpayers filing this form is approved under OMB control number 1545-0074 and is included in the estimates shown in the instructions for their individual income tax return. The estimated burden for all other taxpayers who file this form is shown below.

Recordkeeping ...............1 hr., 54 min.
Learning about the law or the form............ 24 min.
Preparing and sending the form to the IRS.............26 min.

If you have comments concerning the accuracy of these time estimates or suggestions for making this form simpler, we would be happy to hear from you. See the instructions for the tax return with which this form is filed.