It’s important for practitioners to serve patients using ADA compliant podiatry equipment. Individuals with disabilities have more difficulty in their everyday activities—including getting access to routine preventative or other medical care—than do people without disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA), a federal law, prohibits any discrimination against individuals with disabilities. This means that medical practitioners are legally required to provide accessibility to all individuals, including those who have disabilities. Besides this civil rights aspect of accessibility, though, it’s also important medically for people with disabilities to have full access to services so that their minor health issues can be diagnosed and treated before they become major, possibly life-threatening problems.
The ADA lists specific criteria for medical equipment, which are intended to ensure the equality of access to medical services between people with disabilities and people without.
Handles and support rails are sometimes needed during transfers of patients with disabilities. These handles and support rails, as well as straps, foam wedges, stabilization cushions, or rolled-up towels must be available for the installation to be ADA compliant. Support rails also need to be removable and adjustable and they must have continuous gripping surfaces.
Numerous medical professionals meet the criteria to access the ADA Section 44 Tax Credit for their purchase of equipment with ADA compliance. This U.S. government tax credit provides funding for half the purchase price (up to $5000) of relevant podiatry equipment. This tax credit applies to many different types of ADA improvements for individuals with disabilities, including “access to medical care for individuals with mobility disabilities.” This tax credit is potentially available to podiatry practices that purchase ADDIS Pod for facilitating access to their disabled podiatry patients.
Tax Incentives to Purchase ADDIS Pod
The US government has two tax incentives to purchase new equipment.
1. Section 44 ADA Tax Credit
2. Section 179 Accelerated Depreciation
What is Section 44 ADA Tax Credit?
A disabled access credit may be available to podiatry practices that have purchased the ADDIS Pod because it enables such practices to facilitate access by disabled individuals. The credit is half the purchase price of the product up to $5000 with a $250 deductible.
Click here to download a calculator that explains the ADA Section 44 Tax Credit and Section 179 Accelerated Depreciation and calculates an estimated cost of your ADDIS Pod by using these two tax benefits.
What requirements does a practice need to meet in order to use the ADA Section 44 Tax Credit?
To qualify, the practice must meet at least one of the following qualifications:
1. Annual gross receipts of the practice do not exceed $1,000,000.
2. The practice employs no more than 30 full-time employees during the taxable year before the taxable year in which the credit is elected.
What is the Section 179 Deduction?
Section 179 of the IRS tax code allows businesses to deduct the full purchase price of qualifying equipment, including the ADDIS Pod, purchased or financed during the tax year in which they put the purchased equipment in to use. This means when you buy (or lease) a piece of qualifying equipment, you can deduct the ENTIRE purchase price from your gross income up to the stated IRS limitations.
*The material provided is for information purposes only and is not meant to provide tax or financial advice. Please consult with your tax advisor. For the most up to date information, Go to the Internal Revenue Service Web Site
Download IRS Form 8826 for the tax credit for small businesses