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The Section 44 Tax Credit: How Small Businesses Can Offset Accessibility Costs

Most small business owners who get hit with an ADA web accessibility lawsuit don't know this: there's a federal tax credit that can cover nearly half the cost of making your site accessible. It's called the Disabled Access Credit, and it lives in Section 44 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Who Qualifies

The credit is available to small businesses that meet either of these criteria:

Total revenue of $1 million or less in the prior tax year, OR
30 or fewer full-time employees

If you meet either threshold, you likely qualify. Most of the businesses being targeted by serial ADA filers fall well within these limits.

How It Works

The credit covers 50% of eligible access expenditures between $250 and $10,250 per year. That means a maximum credit of $5,000 per year.

Example

Monitoring service at $29/mo$348/year

Eligible amount (above $250 floor)$98

Tax credit (50%)$49

Effective monthly cost~$25/mo

At higher service tiers the math gets even better. A $99/mo monitoring and ticketing service ($1,188/year) yields a credit of about $469 - bringing the effective cost down to roughly $60/mo.

What Counts as Eligible

Eligible expenditures include amounts paid to comply with the ADA. For web accessibility, this covers:

Accessibility auditing and monitoring services
Remediation work to fix accessibility issues
Consulting fees for accessibility compliance
Software and tools used for accessibility testing

How to Claim It

File IRS Form 8826 (Disabled Access Credit) with your annual tax return. The form is straightforward - you list your eligible expenditures and calculate the credit.

The credit directly reduces your tax liability dollar-for-dollar. It's not a deduction - it's a credit, which means it's worth more.

The Bigger Picture

When small business owners hear about accessibility costs after getting sued, they're already stressed about legal fees ($5K-$20K for a typical settlement). The tax credit changes the math. Ongoing accessibility monitoring that costs less than one hour of a lawyer's time per month - and nearly half of it is covered by a tax credit.

Compare that to the cost of getting sued again. 41-46% of ADA defendants get sued a second time. The monitoring isn't just good practice - it's insurance.