How Elevation Tables Can Let the Government Help Pay for Your Table
July 5, 2026 6 min read
The ADA Disabled Access Credit can return up to $5,000 of what you spend making your clinic accessible — and an elevation table is exactly the kind of purchase it was written for.
An elevation table is one of the biggest equipment purchases a chiropractic clinic makes. What many owners don't realize is that the federal government has a standing program that can cover a substantial share of it: the Disabled Access Credit under Section 44 of the Internal Revenue Code, claimed on IRS Form 8826.
Why an elevation table qualifies as an accessibility expense
The ADA requires healthcare providers to give patients with disabilities equal access to care. A fixed-height table is a real barrier: a patient who uses a wheelchair, or an elderly patient with limited mobility, often cannot safely mount a table set at standard working height. An elevation table solves this — it lowers to transfer height so the patient can move from a wheelchair (or simply sit down) safely, then raises to your working height. That makes it adaptive equipment purchased to comply with the ADA, which is precisely the category of expenditure the credit covers.
How the credit works
- •Who qualifies: small businesses with gross receipts of $1 million or less in the prior year, or 30 or fewer full-time employees. Most private chiropractic clinics qualify easily.
- •What it pays: a credit equal to 50% of eligible access expenditures between $250 and $10,250 in a tax year — a maximum credit of $5,000 per year.
- •Credit vs. deduction: this is a dollar-for-dollar reduction of your tax bill, not a deduction. $5,000 of credit is worth $5,000.
- •It can stack: costs above the credit limit may still be eligible for Section 179 expensing or the Section 190 barrier-removal deduction, further reducing the net cost of the table.
- •It renews annually: the credit is per tax year. A clinic upgrading multiple rooms can plan purchases across year-ends and claim it more than once.
The real-world math
Say you buy an elevation table for $6,000. Eligible expenditures over the $250 floor come to $5,750; half of that is a $2,875 credit straight off your federal taxes. On a premium table — an elevating HYLO or a high-low with drops — you can reach the full $5,000 maximum. In practical terms, the government pays for a third to a half of the table.
Choosing a table that earns the credit and your money back
Any true elevation table improves access, but the workhorses are elevating HYLO tables (stand-on entry, powered to horizontal — ideal for patients who cannot climb onto a bench) and open-base hi-lo tables that drop low enough for wheelchair transfer. Both make treatment safer for you as well: less bending and lifting per adjustment, every hour of the day.
