Tuesday, November 1, 2011

New Tool Gauges Cost Benefits when Hiring Disabled Workers

Workforce Management
By Rita Pyrillis
October 25, 2011

The tool focuses on three federal tax incentive programs: the Work Opportunity Credit, which can provide a maximum $2,400 tax credit; the Disabled Access Credit, which helps small businesses defray the cost of providing special equipment; and the Architectural Barrier Removal Tax Deduction, which provides a deduction of up to $15,000 for the removal of architectural and transportation barriers to persons with disabilities and senior citizens.

Debra Ruh is committed to helping the disabled find jobs in the tech industry and to hiring them at her company, TecAccess, a consulting firm that assists employers in making their computer software and hardware more accessible to the disabled. Most of her 32 employees have a physical disability ranging from blindness to impaired mobility.
Ruh, whose daughter Sara has Down syndrome, doesn't need incentives to hire the disabled, who she calls the ultimate problem solvers. But a tax break would be nice, she says. However, she has never applied for any disability tax credit programs and has no plans to, given the red tape and paperwork involved.

Full Story: http://www.workforce.com/article/20111025/NEWS02/111029980/new-tool-gauges-cost-benefits-when-hiring-disabled-workers?wfw

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