Celiac Sentry
Celiac Sentry
Getting a letter from the CRA asking for documentation of your gluten-free food medical expense claim can be stressful. But if you've kept the right records, responding to an audit is straightforward. This guide walks you through exactly what documentation the CRA expects and how to organize it.
Medical expense claims, including GF food claims, are one of the more commonly reviewed items on a T1 return — simply because they're self-reported and variable. However, having a legitimate claim with proper documentation means an audit is a paperwork exercise, not a cause for concern.
The CRA is not trying to catch you doing something wrong — they're verifying that your claim meets their criteria. If it does, and you can prove it, you'll be fine.
This is the most important document. Without it, CRA can reject your entire GF food claim. The letter needs to be from a licensed medical practitioner and confirm you have Celiac disease. It doesn't need to be your original diagnosis letter — a current letter from your doctor confirming your diagnosis is sufficient. If you were diagnosed years ago and don't have documentation, ask your current doctor to write a letter confirming your Celiac disease diagnosis.
You need the actual receipts showing your GF purchases — not just a summary or a spreadsheet of what you bought. The receipts should show the store name, date, and itemized purchases. If you're digitizing receipts (photographing them), make sure the photos are clear enough to read all the details. Paper receipts fade over time, so digitizing them is important for 6-year retention.
You need to be able to show what regular equivalent price you used for each GF product category, and why that price is defensible. The two most defensible sources are: (1) Statistics Canada provincial average prices — official government data that's publicly available and provincially specific, and (2) Photographs of the regular product's shelf price tag at the same store where you purchased the GF item, taken at a comparable time.
The CRA needs to understand how you calculated the incremental cost. This means showing your per-gram comparison math — how you calculated the price per 100g for both the GF and regular product, and how you arrived at the eligible amount for each purchase. A clear, organized spreadsheet or report showing this math for each product category makes an audit much easier to respond to.
If you chose a non-calendar-year 12-month window, document which period you chose and why. Your expenses should be organized by date so the CRA can verify that all claimed expenses fall within your chosen 12-month window.
A summary document listing all your receipts, dates, stores, and eligible amounts makes it much easier for both you and the CRA to navigate your claim. Instead of handing over a shoebox of receipts, you provide an organized index that shows the total claim and allows the CRA to easily verify specific receipts.
When the CRA reviews your medical expense claim, they'll typically send a letter asking you to provide documentation for some or all of your claimed expenses. You'll have a deadline to respond — usually 30 days, though extensions are possible.
You respond by sending copies (not originals) of your documentation. The CRA reviews what you send, and either confirms your claim is acceptable or asks follow-up questions.
This is the most common reason. Without a current doctor's letter confirming your Celiac diagnosis, the CRA has no basis to accept the claim. Get the letter before you file — not after.
A general statement like "I spent approximately $X on GF groceries" without receipts is insufficient. The CRA needs actual documentation of actual purchases.
Using "I just guessed what regular bread costs" or using prices that can't be documented is a problem. Statistics Canada data or photographed shelf prices are defensible. Memory is not.
Fruits, vegetables, meat, and rice are naturally gluten-free. Claiming them implies there's a gluten-containing equivalent — which there isn't. This can flag your entire claim for scrutiny.
Simple arithmetic errors in your per-gram calculations can cause issues. Organized, verified calculations are important.
The single best thing you can do to protect yourself in an audit is maintain organized records throughout the year. Trying to reconstruct 12 months of receipts after the fact is painful and often incomplete. Building the habit of capturing receipts as you go — and maintaining an organized record with your calculation methodology — means an audit becomes a matter of sending what you already have.
The PDF export from Celiac Sentry includes your full calculation methodology, Statistics Canada source citations, receipt index, and itemized eligible amounts — exactly the documentation CRA expects to see. It's designed to be handed to an accountant or submitted in response to a CRA review.
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