Small businesses incur costs when they modify their physical locations.  Tax benefits/credits have been established to help offset these expenses.  These same tax credits apply to website accessibility expenses.

Tax Credit Details

To claim tax benefits for website accessibility and compliance expenses, use IRS Form 8826, the Disabled Access Credit, and refer to Title 26, Internal Revenue Code, Section 44.

The Disabled Access Credit is limited to small businesses with gross receipts of one million dollars or less or that employ 30 or fewer people.

• Example 1: Your company spends $5,000 on an accessibility audit or enhancing your website’s accessibility.
  Only expenditures above $250 qualify, so subtract $250 from $5,000 to get $4,750.
  You can claim 50% of that amount as a tax credit. In other words, you can subtract $2,375 from the tax owed on your next return.
• Example 2: Your company spends $12,000 on an accessibility audit or enhancing your website’s accessibility.
  You have exceeded the limit of $10,250.
  You can claim $10,000 of that. The 50% tax credit, then, comes out to $5,000.

Note also that the same expenditures cannot be capitalized, cannot be used in figuring a different credit.  Also note, however, that this is not a one-time credit. It can be used each year as long as eligibility requirements are met.

State Taxes

The Disabled Access Credit applies to federal taxes. There may also be additional tax benefits at the state level. You should consult a tax professional or perform additional research, depending on the state where your business is based.

For more information, see the IRS Tax Credits and Deductions page on the Americans with Disabilities Act website.

Net Clicks Marketing is not responsible for any tax information that changes or is misinterpreted.  This is meant to be informative and does not replace the advice of an accountant or tax professional.

• Title III of the ADA references “places of public accommodation” and makes no exemptions for small businesses.  Plaintiffs are claiming Title III violations in their digital accessibility lawsuits.

Are small businesses really being sued for website accessibility?

• Yes, individual lawsuits tend to focus on a single business, however, many class actions have been filed and the firms organizing them are including businesses of all sizes and industries.

What could being served a demand letter mean to your business?

• If you are sued you will have to pay a lawyer, pay a fine (typically $3,000 PER ISSUE DISCOVERED on your site) AND you will have to agree to fix your site.

Are there SEO benefits from being ADA compliant?

• YES, ADA compliance includes adding descriptive tags to every piece of visual and audio content.  This makes it easier for Search Engine Algorithms to interpret your content and will result in better placement in search results.

Is using an accessibility widget all you need to do in order to make your site accessible and limit your legal exposure?

• Accessibility widgets make most of your content available to most users with disabilities.
• Compliance widgets further address accessibility issues by sitting between the code that makes your website/app and the user’s browser.  Your code is temporarily changed to fix accessibility issues.
• An AI audit with Human testing and remediation is the only way to be 100% confident all issues have been fixed.

Is making your website compliant expensive?  How much does it cost?

• It can be if you don’t have a plan.
• We have plans for small websites that start at $49 monthly, so a year of accessibility can cost less than an hour of legal fees.
• Your expense depends on how much content you have, how much you want to limit your exposure to legal action and how much accessibility you want to add.