By Stephen Fishman , J.D. · USC Gould School of Law
Updated by Bethany K. Laurence , Attorney · UC Law San Francisco
If you're disabled and receive Social Security disability benefits—either SSDI or SSI—you can qualify for certain tax credits. These credits will reduce the taxes you owe on the taxable income you receive, and might entitle you to a refund.
Receiving SSDI or SSI benefits doesn't prevent you from receiving a tax refund (more on this below).
Tax credits for those with disabilities include the:
Unlike a tax deduction, which only reduces your taxable income, a tax credit reduces the amount of tax you have to pay. For example, a $1,000 credit reduces the tax you owe by $1,000. Moreover, you can collect the earned income tax credit even if you owe no tax. You must file a tax return to claim these credits.
This credit is also called the disabled dependent tax credit. You might qualify for the child and dependent care credit in one of these three situations:
To qualify for this credit, you must pay caregiver expenses for an individual who:
Qualifying caregiver expenses that are eligible for this credit are those paid to allow a spouse of a disabled person, a parent of a teenage or adult child with disabilities, or an adult child with elderly parents to work or look for work—for example, a caregiver comes in during the day to look after you so your spouse can work during the day.
Qualifying expenses don't include amounts paid for food, lodging, clothing, education, or entertainment for the person needing care. But expenses for household services like housekeeping qualify if they are at least partly for the well-being and protection of the disabled person.
You can't get a credit for caregiver expenses paid to:
The credit is worth 20%-35% of the caregiver expenses, depending on your income.
The maximum credit is equal to 35% of up to $3,000 in qualifying caregiver expenses, per child. This makes the maximum credit worth $1,050. The minimum credit is 20% of caregiver expenses (or $600 on the maximum of $3,000 of expenses).
You can receive this credit regardless of how much income you receive. But the amount of the credit is reduced for higher-income taxpayers. (In other words, the percentage of the expenses for which you get a credit is dependent on your income.)
This credit is not refundable. This means you get it only if you (and your spouse, if you're married) owe income tax to the IRS. You can calculate the credit on IRS Form 2441. For more information, see IRS Publication 503, Child and Dependent Care Expenses.
This disability tax credit helps people under 65 who retired from work on permanent and total disability and are receiving taxable disability income from their former employer's accident plan, health plan, or pension plan. (The credit can also provide relief to nondisabled people over 65, but this article addresses only the credit for the disabled.)
To qualify for the tax credit for the disabled, a doctor must certify that you're unable to perform significant employee job duties or be self-employed because of your physical or mental condition.
Unfortunately, most people with disabilities don't qualify for the credit because they have too much income. You won't qualify for the disability tax credit for 2024 if your adjusted gross income (AGI) or SSI or SSDI benefits are more than shown in the following chart:
Filing Status
AGI is equal to or more than:
SSI, SSDI, other nontaxable pensions equal to or more than:
Married filing jointly, both spouses qualify
Married filing jointly, one spouse qualifies
Here are some examples:
If you do qualify for the credit for the disabled, the amount ranges from $3,750 to $7,500, depending on your filing status and income. You must complete IRS Schedule R to figure the amount of the credit. This credit is nonrefundable. This means you get it only if you owe income tax to the IRS. For example, if you qualify for a $3,750 credit and owe $4,000 in income tax, you'll have to pay only $250 in tax. But if you owe no income tax, you get no credit.
If you're disabled and you or your spouse work, you can qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This credit is available to all low-income workers, not just the disabled. To qualify for the EITC, you must:
As with the credit for the elderly and disabled, there are income limits for receiving the EITC, but they are not as strict. And the income limit is higher if you have one or more "qualifying children." (To be a qualifying child, your child must be under age 19 or a full-time student under age 24 at the end of the tax year or permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year, regardless of age.)
For the 2024 tax year (for tax returns filed in 2025), you qualify for the EITC if your annual earned income for 2024 is less than:
The IRS has an EITC Assistant tool on its website that you can use to see if you qualify for the credit. If you do qualify, for the 2024 tax year, the maximum amount of the credit ranges from $632 for no qualifying children to $7,830 with three or more qualifying children.
For the 2023 tax year (for tax returns filed in 2024), you qualified for the EITC if your annual earned income for 2023 was less than:
The maximum credit without children was $600, up to $7,420 with three or more children.
The EITC is refundable, which means you get the full credit even if the amount exceeds the income tax you owe—or even if you owe no income tax at all.
To obtain the EITC, you must file an income tax return and attach Schedule EIC if you have one or more qualifying children.
Receiving SSDI or SSI benefits doesn't prevent you from receiving a tax refund.
You can get a tax refund even if you're on SSI and don't pay taxes, if you qualify for certain types of credits like the child tax credit or earned income tax credit. (Only a portion of the child tax credit is refundable, meaning that you could receive the credit even if you have zero income tax liability. So SSI recipients who don't owe taxes can get most of the child tax credit, but not all of it, as a refund.)
Whether you owe taxes or not, you should file a tax return if you think you qualify for any of the credits discussed above. If you don't file a tax return, you will miss out on many of the credits. If you qualify, you'll get the credits in the form of a tax refund after you file your tax return. Read about when a tax refund will affect SSI, including when you should file a tax return.