Tax-Free Savings Accounts for People With Disabilities Launching This Summer
Several states will begin offering tax-free savings accounts for people with disabilities as early as this summer.
The new accounts, modeled after 529 college plans, will allow people with disabilities to save up to $100,000 without endangering their eligibility for Social Security and other government-provided benefits — and keep their Medicaid, to boot.
The result of the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act, which President Obama signed in December 2014, the accounts will feature tax-free interest. People who incurred their medical condition before the age of 26 will be able to use ABLE funds toward expenses such as education, healthcare, transportation and housing.
The first state to announce a launch date for its ABLE program is Nebraska — which will begin offering accounts June 30 — but some say Ohio could open its accounts prior to that. Both Ohio and Nebraska’s programs will be available to people with disabilities nationwide.
“It’s exciting that after working on this legislation for 10 years that individuals with Down syndrome and other disabilities will be able to open accounts as soon as next month,” Sara Hart Weir, president of the National Down Syndrome Society, told DisabilityScoop.
Megan Zahneis is a first-year journalism student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, pursuing her passion for writing, advocacy, awareness and public speaking. She hopes to write a memoir to share her story of living with a very rare neurological disorder and effect positive change in others’ lives. In addition to her work writing for Major League Baseball and her school newspaper, Megan is a founding member of her school’s Students with Disabilities Advisory Council and a senior staff member at the Ohio Youth Leadership Forum for high school students with disabilities. Visit her website at meganzahneis.com.
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