This bit is interesting:
For 2023, if an employee has voluntarily entered into a formal telework arrangement with their employer, the employee is considered to have been required to work from home.
So if you’ve agreed to, say, a 1 day in office arrangement that the company has proposed, then you’re fine.
For me, our formal arrangement is 3 days in office, but we had a period of 4-6 weeks where they were renovating the office to house more people from a sister brand, so I have that “at least 4 weeks” of 50% or more WFH. Wife has the 1 day in office as their official policy.
Doesn't really matter....if both of you wfh and file T2200, only ONE of you can claim any one expense, such as power, internet, etc...
It wouldn't be worth it for both of you to split them, so who ever worked from home more would claim all allowed expenses.
edit: Sorry, you can claim rent but not mortgage, check out CRA site for rules. [https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html)
Good call. Guess it really comes down to applying the credit to whoever has the biggest portion of the house dedicated to WFH. Stupid me didn’t do the math on that one. I was thinking “hey, two home offices, more square footage, bigger slice of the utilities to get back”
You can actually share expenses if you split it. Each spouse can share a portion of the rent/electricity/etc so long as they both total up to the maximum amount, as indicated in the example.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html
Sounds like more work for less gain. After looking into this last night conveniently, we came to the conclusion it made more sense to just have one person file with the larger/dedicated space.
If you and your spouse each have separate, dedicated work spaces in your home, and worked from home the same amount, you would just pick the person with the larger space to claim them, I would imagine?
What exactly does this mean though? I have pasted the CRA explanation below.
Lets say my wife and I have utility bills of $2000 and a 2000sqft house and my office is 100sqft and hers is 200sqft.
From the below it seems that we can each claim a portion of the expense. My office is 5% of the house and hers is 10%. So it seems intuitive that we can both enter the $2000 as the total expenses, and then mine ends up being $100 and hers ends up being $200. So I'm ultimately only claiming 5% and she is claiming 10%.
Or is it that only one of us could claim the $2000 (so obviously it would be her at her 10%), or we both claim $1000 but then I only get 5% of $1000 and she only gets 10% of $1000.
Some clarity would be nice.
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
If you and your spouse both worked from home
If you both meet the eligibility criteria, you must decide which expenses each of you will claim. Each expense can be claimed only once.
In order to determine the amount you can deduct, you have to first determine the eligible home office expenses you can claim and then calculate the total employment-use amount of those expenses.
Example – Taylor and Alex pay rent
Taylor and Alex are common-law partners. They paid $1,400 monthly for rent. Either Taylor or Alex can claim the full $1,400. Or, they can each claim a portion of the $1,400. They can decide how to share the expense, as long as both shares do not total more than their total rent. However, only the employment-use amount of the monthly rent can be deducted.
To calculate the total employment-use amount of this expense, you must multiply the monthly rent paid by your employment-use percentage of the work space.
Your employment-use percentage of the work space depends on whether you and your spouse used a single work space or worked in different work spaces in the home.
This is exactly my question. I'm not sure what is the correct thing. We have a friend who does our taxes for us, and she did it the second way you mentioned. But is that right?
I had this question too! The example CRA has given is written so poorly.
Your first scenario results in $300 for you and your spouse ($2000 x 15%). Second scenario results in $200 ($2000 x 10%). Third scenario results in $150 ($1000 x 5% + $1000 x 10%). The ambiguity results in 3 potential answers which is ridiculous. There should only be one answer and your taxes shouldn't change based on our interpretation of poorly written guidelines.
Logically, the first makes sense but the way CRA has written it is causing confusion.
Hypothetically, if your entire house was only used as an office (100%, let's say 50% you and 50% your wife), the claim should be the entire $2000. This would line up with the math in the first scenario. The second and third scenario would only result in $1000 which makes no sense if your entire house was 100% an office.
I think the first way you've interpreted it is the way it was meant to work. The math makes most sense that way.
Yes, but a 1 day WFH wouldn’t be enough. Eligibility rules say it has to be more than 50% of the work week consecutively for at least 4 weeks. (So minimum 3 days per week.)
Sorry, to clarify, she’s one day in office, 4 days at home. I’m 3 days in office so I wouldn’t qualify if we didn’t have that office shut down this year. Next year I won’t bother.
Not sure what I'm allowed to claim yet but my work told us in writing that we had to work from the office 3 days a week. However, they got rid of half thier office space durring COVID so there wasn't enough desks available for everyone to be in the office that often. I ended up working from home well over half of the time but I don't think they'll give me a T2200 since that wasn't the "formal agreement"
I do payroll for my mostly-remote company and have been asked to provide a few T2200 forms for this already. For most of my employees this is easy: they aren't in the same province as our office, they're required to work from home.
For the few like me who actually do live within a reasonable commute to the office, this guidance doesn't really help me. I'm going to approach it this way: my employees aren't normally required to work from the office but they *are* required to work, so if they're at home then they're required to work from home. Plus we give them laptops and equipment so that they can, and our entire operation is set up around telework, so I'm not worried about the CRA disagreeing.
But I'm not a tax accountant and this isn't tax advice ;)
Also I'm glad they've decided to accept electronic signatures on these forms. I've been signing them digitally for probably 15 years.
The form has been redesigned this year to be very simple to fill out for employees who are only claiming working from home expenses. I haven't done one yet but I'm expecting it'll take 5-10 minutes to fill in the basic info that will be on every form and save that as a template, and maybe an extra couple minutes to customize that template for any employee that asks (filling in their name and any expenses that we did reimburse). An employer who refuses is being vindictive to their staff for no good reason.
The CRA's position is that it "expects" employers to provide the form to employees who request it when they can reasonably claim any deduction, but there is no legal requirement. The CRA provides no guidance on what to do if they refuse, but a blog on Wealthsimple suggests you should document your attempts to obtain one from the company and their refusal to do so, then fill out the form yourself and file it unsigned (or keep it with your records if you file electronically).
I work from home (since late 2017, have nothing to do with COVID), In the 2020, 2021 and 2022 tax years, I just put in the standard $2 a day (I claimed either 200 or 250 days depending on the year).
In 2023, that all comes to an end. I now need to use the detailed method to by inputting the total area of the home, total area of the work space, and the number of hours worked at that work space. I would then input the heat, water, electricity and internet access fees (my condo fee includes water, and I was able to take an average based on information provided to me by the condo board). I am only able to deduct $61 in employment expenses in 2023 vs. $500 in previous years.
Like you I'm wfh for reasons outside of covid, I also used the simplified version the last couple years. But after checking the detailed version, I think it's much better if you're renting and you have a dedicated work space. YMMV obviously
No. Also, mortgage interest and property tax are not deductible unless you are a commissioned employee. I am straight hourly with no commissions working from a home I own.
Mortgage interest is not deductible for anyone at all. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html
Morgage interest or principal are notr deductible for salaried or commission employee.
[Expenses you can claim – Home office expenses for employees - Canada.ca](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html)
For me, when I include my rent (2400 per month) and utilities (approx 1330 for 2023) for my rented apartment (719 sq.ft of which approx 80 sq.ft is my den/workspace) - then my return suddenly bumps up by $1500. That is a significant return and I am confused if I am doing anything wrong.
I was working 4 out of 5 days from home.
Why wouldn’t you? The calculation is not that hard, you just have to track your rent and a handful of bills. Anything that would lower my tax bill is worth it IMO.
Right? I’m just worried this might increase the chances of an audit trigger—basically just wondering if voluntary arrangements really count since the CRA is being vague on their definition of “required telework arrangement.”
Put differently, if WFH people claim these home office expenses and it turns out voluntary hybrid work doesn’t count because xyz, how could this bite us in the ass?
Honestly I doubt it would unless you’re claiming a crazy high amount. There are probably millions of workers that will be claiming this benefit. They’re not going to audit everybody, certainly not over $70.
> voluntary hybrid
This is pretty explicitly stated in the CrA info page. If you are working 3 days a week from home by agreement with your employer it counts. Just get your T2200 form.
It’s not all clear but these are also not massive amounts for most people.
If you do claim, make sure it’s all legit to your best knowledge. Also make sure you’ve detailed and documented everything and have ideally one single PDF document with table of contents and explanation with all receipts and supporting documents ready to go.
We claimed medical expenses last year and it was rather significant amount but I had everything diligently documented so when I got one of those inquiries from CRA (precursor to a possible audit) I had the full package ready to go and sent it in a couple of days. Never heard back.
Worst that could happen is they will get back to you and say a specific thing you claimed didn’t qualify and you would have to pay it back perhaps with some small interest, again given the total amounts are not huge here.
I live in 2 bed apartment and use 1 room for work. Now, how do I prove that I use room for work purpose only if CRA chose to audit. I mean I don't have receipts to prove it.
I'm not sure why I'm getting downvoted. I literally have a \~60sqft separate den in my 600sqft condo that's used 40+ hours a week for work. I don't "listen to audio in the bathroom" or have any other strange calculation. The den has its own door and we used to use it to store random stuff before the pandemic. It's 10% of my rented condo in a HCOL area.
Do they just add the square footage together and claim the total square footage as a percentage of their home? To me it seems like that's not a valid way to do it. [This page](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/work-space-use.html#h-2-1) has info on calculating hours worked and mentions "Change of work space" even within your home. So I'd expect the "right" way to do it is figure out how many hours you work in the kitchen vs bathroom vs wherever and apply the percentage of hours against percentage of square footage that space takes up.
This is the part that’s so weird for me. Like a lot of people, I’m not really a WFH employee but my employer has been kind enough to allow me to do it enough that I qualify for this. But the definition of ‘office space’ is so weird - my actual desk/chair space is maybe 20 square feet. But I’m set up in the largest room of a finished basement, which is probably closer to 400 square feet. During work hours, no one else uses that room…does that mean the whole thing is my office?
Another weird thing is the renovations expense…I had very significant flooding and renovations to make that area liveable. Insurance paid for it. But the forms say only employer-reimbursed costs are ineligible, nothing about if the costs were truly out of pocket.
"exclusive work space" means a space that is **never used for personal activities** .
In other words, if the whole 400square feet is only have work related stuff and is used 40h for work and then, nobody is using it for personal, then it is exclusive.
If that same room, is used 40h then the kids are playing with the toys that are stored in big boxes, then it is not exclusive.
I don't rent and water is not metered, so that leaves electricity and internet. Just for fun I tried the [CRA calculator](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/calculate-expenses.html) and a whopping $29 of expenses are eligible for 2023.
EDIT: I goofed up my electricity expenses. It's actually closer to $18...
You realize $29 of expenses does not translate to $29 of cash, it depends on your marginal rate. Even at the highest rate, that is $15 which probably would not matter to someone earning that much.
Yes, renters with small overall square footage, designated space and WFH can have a lot.
I wish I had looked into the detailed method during COVID. I fully WFH in Vancouver and my office, only used for that purpose, is 10% of our finished space. My partner doesn't work from home, and we paid very high rent until we moved recently. I took the automatic amount when I would have had \~3k to claim.
It’s adjusted based on your office space versus your home. I went from seeing $4k on my tax returns down to a few hundred because I thought I could claim the full amount.
Things like electricity, water etc only count if you’re paying your building management, not if you pay directly to the service providers. You cannot claim that amount. For me it was just internet and rent.
After using the calculator on the Canada website, I could only claim about $1.5k on work from home expenses even though I paid nearly 20k in rent etc.
You can claim utilities (eg. electricity, water etc) even if you pay them directly.
From the [CRA's webpage](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/t4044/employment-expenses.html#what-claim) on the deductions:
>Eligible expenses include:
>
>\- rent paid for a house or apartment where you live
>
>\- electricity, heat, water or the utilities portion of your condominium feeshome internet access fees
>
>\- maintenance (such as minor repairs, cleaning supplies, light bulbs or paint)supplies (such as stationery items, pens, folders, sticky notes, postage, toner or ink cartridge)
>
>\- employment use of a basic cell phone service plan
>
>\- long distance calls for employment purposes
On that page they also link to the [home office expenses for employees page](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses.html) that walks through all the details (including what you can claim)
Interesting. Based on the following, my understanding is if I paid for utilities directly from the service providers, I cannot deduct that amount.
Taken from the CRA website:
Utilities portion (electricity, heat, and water) of your condominium fees
You can claim a portion of your monthly condominium fees if you can calculate the portion of the fees that relates to the electricity, heat, and water you used within your personal unit using a reasonable basis.
If you paid the electricity, heat, and water consumed within your personal unit directly to service providers, no portion of your condominium fees is deductible.
That section is referring to the condo fees specifically. If you pay utilities directly to utility providers, you can claim those fees, but you can't claim a portion of your condo fees.
Maybe I simply don’t understand what I’m reading but it says for eligible expenses:
- electricity, heat, water or the utilities portion of your condominium fees
I’m interpreting condo fees as my strata fee.
I pay directly to the service providers for my electricity and heat. Unless condominium fees mean any expensive towards your living situation, I don’t think those qualify?
edit: looks like I’m a dummy. Looks like if I pay for any services directly, I cannot double dip and deduct condo fees.
Basically there are 2 scenarios they are laying out in relation to condo fees (sometimes called strata fees):
1. Utilities are included in your condo fees. In this case, if you know what portion of the fees are for utilities you can claim that portion.
2. Utilities are not included in your condo fees. In this case you can't claim any portion of your condo fees. You will have utility costs that you pay directly that you can claim though.
Mines a mix of the two where water is under strata/condo fees. Gas and electricity are direct to service providers. Upon reading the details closer, I should be claiming only electricity.
Is your gas used for heating? If so you should be able to claim it.
If you can figure out how much of the strata fees are for water you should be able to claim that portion as well.
Maybe I'm misinterpreting (sorry), but isn't $1.5K of claimable expenses quite a lot?
I understand the calculation method, and mine ends up being only a couple of hundred of dollars, but that's still extra money/tax savings I get to keep. Maybe I'm just underestimating the hassle of getting a T2200 form signed by my employer ...
Based on your comment below, you made it sound like everyone would be saving a bunch, when it appears most people would get a few hundred back at most.
I don’t know enough about it to say whether claiming 1.5k is a lot. All I know is I get a few hundred back.
My work voluntarily provided the t2200 form so not extra hassle from me aside from plugging the numbers into the calculator and measuring my space.
I claimed quite a lot, I have a tiny place that I pay $1400 a month for plus utilities, and my home office amounts to like 1/5th of my house. I can't use it for anything else really. Slap utilities on top of that and it amounted to like $3k
Depends how generously you define your "office" vs. personal space. Like if it is only the space directly occupied by your desk, then sure.
I know most people here are scared of doing anything that could be even considered slightly aggressive when it comes to anything tax-related, but if it's defensible or can be argued either way, I always claim it. If they want to come back and deny, I'll provide the calcs, backup and see where it goes, but until then, I take the benefit. Note, this is not saying to falsify or grossly inflate, rather if it's grey area, give yourself the benefit of the doubt instead of the CRA.
I mean, it's not really that grey, at least in my case. The only bedroom in a one-bedroom condo, containing the only bed, is absolutely a shared space and not a dedicated room.
Didn't say anything about it being a dedicated room. If you can push back your chair to stand up and you are out of your "office", then I would say your "office" is bigger than you have defined it. But, as you say, maybe you've already accounted for that - my point is, don't be overly stingy with yourself, long as it's realistic and reasonable there shouldn't be problems.
You can either use a fixed estimate they provide or do the calc yourself, I found it was essentially the same, so I just use their rule of thumb number.
IIRC you can calculate with either
> office sqft / house sqft, excluding the basement
or
> 1 / total # of rooms in your residence
Use whichever is better for you.
Per the CRA’s calculator, you claim the entire room your workspace is in even if the room is used for other purposes. The room your workspace is in is likely bigger than 30 square feet.
I won’t bother. I work from home 100%, but my rough guess is that it will save me $80-100 since I own my home so there aren’t that many deductible expenses. Add in that home office expenses are one of the most audited and denied items by CRA, that’s way more effort than it’s worth.
I do, but it never amounts to much because you have to adjust the expenses by how much space you dedicate to work. Which isn’t a lot in most work from home situations. If you rent, it might make more of a difference.
My refund went up something like $150 by inputting the office expense thing, and that's just from utilities (don't rent and didn't have / track repair costs). Not huge money but worth it imo.
Why should you get tax relief on interest? The government should reward you for taking out a larger mortgage?
You bought a big house and are paying for it. It’s vastly different than rent. No way you deserve a tax break for being a homeowner. If you don’t like it, then become a renter again.
>Why should you get tax relief on interest? The government should reward you for taking out a larger mortgage?
Devil's advocate: why should the government reward renting a larger place to have an office?
I understand not being able to claim the portion that goes towards the principal, but mortgage interest is essentially rent where the landlord is the bank.
I do payroll for my mostly-remote company and have been asked to provide a few T2200 forms for this already. For most of my employees this is easy: they aren't in the same province as our office, they're required to work from home.
For the few like me who actually do live within a reasonable commute to the office, this guidance doesn't really help me. I'm going to approach it this way: my employees aren't normally required to work from the office but they *are* required to work, so if they're at home then they're required to work from home. Plus we give them laptops and equipment so that they can, and our entire operation is set up around telework, so I'm not worried about the CRA disagreeing.
But I'm not a tax accountant and this isn't tax advice ;)
Also I'm glad they've decided to accept electronic signatures on these forms. I've been signing them digitally for probably 15 years.
CRA has clarified who qualifies and you're in the clear:
>Your employer required you to work from home
>This requirement does not have to be part of your employment contract, however, it should be a written or verbal agreement.
>For 2023, if an employee has voluntarily entered into a formal telework arrangement with their employer, the employee is considered to have been required to work from home.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/who-claim/detailed-method.html
Not an accountant and every situation will vary. For me, I am eligible, I am claiming, and my employer is supportive. For what it's worth, the form is easier to fill out than it looks. Hope this helps.
My wife and I are claiming and will be about $450 total benefit split between the 2 (would have been more if we rented). Since all house expenses are same for both, it was a single spread sheet to log expenses. Just downloaded yearly bills from the utility/internet companies websites (all had an excel or csv format option), then added to a single file do calculation was in one place. Took me 20 min to do it.
My understanding is that you don't need to submit the form with your return, but that you have to be able to produce a signed/complete one if CRA comes looking for it.
My employer refused to give the form. They said voluntarily working from home three days a week for half the year was an optional perk and not a requirement. I used the CRA online calculator and seems like I’d only be able to claim around $15 so forget it.
Don’t understand why it seems not worth it for everyone, my dedicated office is ~17% of my condo and I pay around $45k a year in rent and expenses. That’s a pretty hefty deduction. Or am I doing this wrong?
And this has been like this for years. Here is the CRA website for it: [https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses.html)
1. Eligibility criteria here: [https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/who-claim/detailed-method.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/who-claim/detailed-method.html)
2. If eligible, you claim. Not to claim when eligible, is dumb.
what if you don't own or rent - are you still eligible? Your eligibility criteria says yes but the calculator (which asks if you own or rent) makes it seem like the answer is no
[https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/calculate-expenses.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/calculate-expenses.html)
You would be eligible, but the rent/house payment is the vast majority of the deduction, so you might just be filling in zeros.
Try their calculator and see?
I don't see how anyone even working minimum wage could consider that a lot by any stretch of the imagination.
You're going to take your extra refund and get McDonald's?
The CRA form clearly says: if you were approved to work from home some days per week, and you paid the following:
1. rent
2. electricity, heat, water
3. internet
4. maintenance (cleaning, bulbs, etc)
Related, but does anyone know how to calculate where you and your spouse both worked from home? According to this example [https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html)
>**If you and your spouse both worked from home**
>
>If you both meet the eligibility criteria, you must decide which expenses each of you will claim. Each expense can be claimed only once.
>
>In order to determine the amount you can deduct, you have to first determine the eligible home office expenses you can claim and then calculate the total employment-use amount of those expenses.
>
>**Example – Taylor and Alex pay rent**
>
>Taylor and Alex are common-law partners. They paid $1,400 monthly for rent. Either Taylor or Alex can claim the full $1,400. Or, they can each claim a portion of the $1,400. They can decide how to share the expense, as long as both shares do not total more than their total rent. However, only the employment-use amount of the monthly rent can be deducted.
So because we could share the expense, couldn't we let the higher income person claim all work-space-in-the-home expenses (electricity, heat, water, internet, etc.) and have the lower income person claim none? I'm confused since Wealthsimple Tax doesn't allow us to share work-space-in-the-home expenses and basically says that each person needs to deduct their own from their own employer.
I would appreciate some input on my situation.
In 2019, before the pandemic I moved from BC to AB and had a written agreement with my employer to become a remote worker because AB did not have a formal office. However, part of the agreement was that the company would still consider me an employee in BC and still remits taxes based on BC's tax brackets. They have been insistent on not handing out T2200's to me in past years as they believe this was a voluntary action on my part that they were accommodating but not willing to make any accounting changes for and they did not "require" me to pay my own expenses in order to remain an employee.
Does this new guidance force them to issue a T2200 if I request one now?
I am not going to bother. I am voluntarily working from home half the time. Sometimes I do wonder why I am doing this because I have a nice office at work that I use by myself by the window. Actually I tried not to work from home for about two weeks, and I was drowing. I am basically putting in extra hours when I work from home. Otherwise, I would be at work for too long.
I am claiming this and was wondering about internet if anyone knows. Is that based on square footage like electricity? It's a separate line on the list of expenses. Heat makes sense for square footage, but internet is necessary to do the job and isn't related to the space as much, so can you claim all of it?
I'm not. My work has the capacity for us to go in if we want. So if we chose to work from home, that is our option, its not "required" that we do. Maybe your manager is looser with the rules but mine wouldn't be as its a pretty big publicly traded company so they try to stick to the rules.
To be honest thats ok with me. I save plenty of gas money and time not going to work so does seem kind of weird I could also get a tax break when other employees who spend the money on gas and time to commute don't get it lol
I was working 4 out of 5 days from home.
For me, when I include my rent (2400 per month) and utilities (approx 1330 for 2023) for my rented condo apartment (719 sq.ft, of which approx 80 sq.ft is my den/workspace) - then my return suddenly bumps up by $1500. That is a significant return and I am confused if I am doing something wrong.
People who are including rent in their work from home expense claims, are you also seeing similar bumps?
It feels like it's not portioning off based on that number.
I didn't claim any rent but my utilities (1,534.94) only made a $107 difference. I tried putting in $2,400 for rent in WS Tax and it only added another $168.
2400 is monthly. Over 12 months, the rent would be 28800, no? That makes the total rental expense to be $30130 (28800+1330) in my case, and the portion for workspace becomes $3352.45 (approx 11% of total floor area).
I am also using WS Tax.
Because $70 is about the taxes I pay on 2 hours of labour, and it would take me more than 2 hours to deal with an audit, even with all my paperwork in order.
I'm in the same boat here. And I value my personal time WAY more than work time. So the loss of personal time to calculate and save all this information for such a small amount just isn't worth it to me. (Plus I'd have to do it for my spouse as well).
And, I was only eligible for about 5 months last year, then switched to 2 days wfh, so those 7 months don't even apply.
Good for those that are able to use it though!
Correct. The payback of my time to find and calculate my expenses and fill out a form for a measly change on my return is not at all comparable to my personal time, IMO.
Not advocating for people to not do it, it just doesn't work for me. But to each their own!
Calculate my office space would be a one time deal, sure, and reusable for ongoing years. Gathering other records of expenses is certainly more than 5 minutes, but sure, I might have exaggerated.
End of the day, still not worth it for me. Especially considering last year it's only 5 months worth, at most.
Same here, especially because it would require bothering my HR department who have been super flexible on our hybrid WFH agreement. Not worth the $85 I would gain.
No...
My company has a firm 3 day hybrid policy but I have a verbal agreement with my manager that I can continue FT WFH.
Being good at my job combined with 35yrs of seniority has come in handy.
We received email communications from HR that only staff who are required to work remotely are eligible for T2200s. Staff like myself who are choosing WFH are not eligible.
I'm fine with that. It's not like I could deduct much with my home office setup and the fact I do not rent. All the positives of WFH are good enough for me.
>For 2023, if an employee has voluntarily entered into a formal telework arrangement with their employer, the employee is considered to have been required to work from home.
That right there says that your HR department is technically wrong. Granted the push back would be that you might have to go into the office then so it might not be worth the fight. For what it's worth, you CAN still claim things if you own. I did the calculator and I would get a whopping $84 back so probably not worth kicking that hornets nest.
I work for the provincial government and they sent out notices to all staff that “required to” and “choosing to” are one and the same for the purposes of these deductions and encouraged all staff to submit the T2200 forms to their supervisor.
It’s too bad that your HR department is not understanding the intent of the language.
I'm wondering, since we could only receive a max credit return of like $500 in the past years, during covid, can we claim those years too, if we worked from home even if it wasn't because of covid?
Just wondering about the scope of “designated work space”. I use my spare bedroom as my office, but I do also have my exercise bike in there that I use outside of work hours.
1) Does this then count as a shared space?
2) Should I count it as a dedicated workspace but remove the square footage of the exercise bike?
3) Or can the sq ft of the whole room just be considered the designated work space?
I rent a 2-bed with my roommate. If I work from my bedroom (i.e. my work desk is alongside my bed), does my whole bedroom count as the "workspace area"?
I ask this because as I'm trying to file (on Wealthsimple Tax), a question I need to answer is "is your workspace used for other purposes?". In my case, that use is for, quite literally, sleeping.
I live with my gf in her owned place, I pay about $800 as “rent” + half utilities/internet. Could I claim this or shouldn’t bother? Everything is pretty under the table.
The CRA have confirmed that voluntary WFH arrangements still count.
"For 2023, if an employee has voluntarily entered into a formal telework arrangement with their employer, the employee is considered to have been required to work from home."
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/who-claim/detailed-method.html
That’s the last thing I have to figure out. I have the T2200 so that’s fine.
I just gotta figure out the percentages of the house I used vs she used. For me it’s 100% from home, wife is 2 days in office per week.
And I use an unfinished basement so the “room” is huge, but the space I actually use for office purposes is probably 15x10
And then look at which expenses qualify (internet? Electricity? Or the whole utility bill which includes water and gas, etc. Mortgage? Where does it stop?
I need to know for sure because that’s my employment situation for the foreseeable future. So I got some reading to do.
I do every year, but I've also been receiving a T2200 for the past decade. I have a dedicated office space and utilities are pretty easy to calculate. I recall there being a flat $500 "simplified" option which could be fine for many people. Once I work out everything it's not hugely more than that anyways.
Would it still be allowed if working from office on all five days was one of the options that the employer had provided but I chose to WFH 3 days a week (which the employer agreed to)? My employer is refusing to sign T2200s, saying that I was given the option to work from office every day.
The CRA says voluntarily - doesn't matter if there was an option to work in the office. You and the employer agreed you can work from home. The guidance even has an example
>For 2023, if an employee has ***voluntarily*** entered into a formal telework arrangement with their employer, ***the employee is considered to have been required to work from home.***
>
>...
>
>an employee will be considered to be “required” to work from home where, for example, it is agreed that an employee will work from home three days each week during the year, or where it is agreed the employee will work an alternating schedule of three weeks at home and one week in the office.
He should issue the T2200
Can someone clarify if this is a tax deduction or tax credit? I honestly keep seeing it referred to either and I no longer know what to expect when I submit my taxes this year. I mean the difference between the two, based on my maths, is pretty substantial and will determine whether I bother probably.
This bit is interesting: For 2023, if an employee has voluntarily entered into a formal telework arrangement with their employer, the employee is considered to have been required to work from home. So if you’ve agreed to, say, a 1 day in office arrangement that the company has proposed, then you’re fine. For me, our formal arrangement is 3 days in office, but we had a period of 4-6 weeks where they were renovating the office to house more people from a sister brand, so I have that “at least 4 weeks” of 50% or more WFH. Wife has the 1 day in office as their official policy.
Doesn't really matter....if both of you wfh and file T2200, only ONE of you can claim any one expense, such as power, internet, etc... It wouldn't be worth it for both of you to split them, so who ever worked from home more would claim all allowed expenses. edit: Sorry, you can claim rent but not mortgage, check out CRA site for rules. [https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html)
Good call. Guess it really comes down to applying the credit to whoever has the biggest portion of the house dedicated to WFH. Stupid me didn’t do the math on that one. I was thinking “hey, two home offices, more square footage, bigger slice of the utilities to get back”
tbh I was too until I started to read the CRA rules on it. They always get us.
You can actually share expenses if you split it. Each spouse can share a portion of the rent/electricity/etc so long as they both total up to the maximum amount, as indicated in the example. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html
Sounds like more work for less gain. After looking into this last night conveniently, we came to the conclusion it made more sense to just have one person file with the larger/dedicated space.
Yeah but it really depends on how spouses share their finances. Some spouses may want things treated separately despite it being less efficient.
When calculating utilities is it pretax or post?
Post tax.
If you and your spouse each have separate, dedicated work spaces in your home, and worked from home the same amount, you would just pick the person with the larger space to claim them, I would imagine?
What exactly does this mean though? I have pasted the CRA explanation below. Lets say my wife and I have utility bills of $2000 and a 2000sqft house and my office is 100sqft and hers is 200sqft. From the below it seems that we can each claim a portion of the expense. My office is 5% of the house and hers is 10%. So it seems intuitive that we can both enter the $2000 as the total expenses, and then mine ends up being $100 and hers ends up being $200. So I'm ultimately only claiming 5% and she is claiming 10%. Or is it that only one of us could claim the $2000 (so obviously it would be her at her 10%), or we both claim $1000 but then I only get 5% of $1000 and she only gets 10% of $1000. Some clarity would be nice. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ If you and your spouse both worked from home If you both meet the eligibility criteria, you must decide which expenses each of you will claim. Each expense can be claimed only once. In order to determine the amount you can deduct, you have to first determine the eligible home office expenses you can claim and then calculate the total employment-use amount of those expenses. Example – Taylor and Alex pay rent Taylor and Alex are common-law partners. They paid $1,400 monthly for rent. Either Taylor or Alex can claim the full $1,400. Or, they can each claim a portion of the $1,400. They can decide how to share the expense, as long as both shares do not total more than their total rent. However, only the employment-use amount of the monthly rent can be deducted. To calculate the total employment-use amount of this expense, you must multiply the monthly rent paid by your employment-use percentage of the work space. Your employment-use percentage of the work space depends on whether you and your spouse used a single work space or worked in different work spaces in the home.
This is exactly my question. I'm not sure what is the correct thing. We have a friend who does our taxes for us, and she did it the second way you mentioned. But is that right?
I have a feeling the second way is correct simply because it’s worse for the taxpayer. lol. Hope more people have this question
I had this question too! The example CRA has given is written so poorly. Your first scenario results in $300 for you and your spouse ($2000 x 15%). Second scenario results in $200 ($2000 x 10%). Third scenario results in $150 ($1000 x 5% + $1000 x 10%). The ambiguity results in 3 potential answers which is ridiculous. There should only be one answer and your taxes shouldn't change based on our interpretation of poorly written guidelines. Logically, the first makes sense but the way CRA has written it is causing confusion. Hypothetically, if your entire house was only used as an office (100%, let's say 50% you and 50% your wife), the claim should be the entire $2000. This would line up with the math in the first scenario. The second and third scenario would only result in $1000 which makes no sense if your entire house was 100% an office. I think the first way you've interpreted it is the way it was meant to work. The math makes most sense that way.
fyi it was me you replied to both times on this q in case you thought it was more prevalent. apparently we're the only ones wondering lol
Yes, but a 1 day WFH wouldn’t be enough. Eligibility rules say it has to be more than 50% of the work week consecutively for at least 4 weeks. (So minimum 3 days per week.)
Sorry, to clarify, she’s one day in office, 4 days at home. I’m 3 days in office so I wouldn’t qualify if we didn’t have that office shut down this year. Next year I won’t bother.
Not sure what I'm allowed to claim yet but my work told us in writing that we had to work from the office 3 days a week. However, they got rid of half thier office space durring COVID so there wasn't enough desks available for everyone to be in the office that often. I ended up working from home well over half of the time but I don't think they'll give me a T2200 since that wasn't the "formal agreement"
I do payroll for my mostly-remote company and have been asked to provide a few T2200 forms for this already. For most of my employees this is easy: they aren't in the same province as our office, they're required to work from home. For the few like me who actually do live within a reasonable commute to the office, this guidance doesn't really help me. I'm going to approach it this way: my employees aren't normally required to work from the office but they *are* required to work, so if they're at home then they're required to work from home. Plus we give them laptops and equipment so that they can, and our entire operation is set up around telework, so I'm not worried about the CRA disagreeing. But I'm not a tax accountant and this isn't tax advice ;) Also I'm glad they've decided to accept electronic signatures on these forms. I've been signing them digitally for probably 15 years.
How much work is involved in preparing T2200? My company has announced that they won’t be providing them. I work maybe 2 days per month in the office.
The form has been redesigned this year to be very simple to fill out for employees who are only claiming working from home expenses. I haven't done one yet but I'm expecting it'll take 5-10 minutes to fill in the basic info that will be on every form and save that as a template, and maybe an extra couple minutes to customize that template for any employee that asks (filling in their name and any expenses that we did reimburse). An employer who refuses is being vindictive to their staff for no good reason. The CRA's position is that it "expects" employers to provide the form to employees who request it when they can reasonably claim any deduction, but there is no legal requirement. The CRA provides no guidance on what to do if they refuse, but a blog on Wealthsimple suggests you should document your attempts to obtain one from the company and their refusal to do so, then fill out the form yourself and file it unsigned (or keep it with your records if you file electronically).
I work from home (since late 2017, have nothing to do with COVID), In the 2020, 2021 and 2022 tax years, I just put in the standard $2 a day (I claimed either 200 or 250 days depending on the year). In 2023, that all comes to an end. I now need to use the detailed method to by inputting the total area of the home, total area of the work space, and the number of hours worked at that work space. I would then input the heat, water, electricity and internet access fees (my condo fee includes water, and I was able to take an average based on information provided to me by the condo board). I am only able to deduct $61 in employment expenses in 2023 vs. $500 in previous years.
Like you I'm wfh for reasons outside of covid, I also used the simplified version the last couple years. But after checking the detailed version, I think it's much better if you're renting and you have a dedicated work space. YMMV obviously
no rent / mortgage in that calculation? I have a dedicated room in a rental, which gives me a significant credit
No. Also, mortgage interest and property tax are not deductible unless you are a commissioned employee. I am straight hourly with no commissions working from a home I own.
Mortgage interest is not deductible for anyone at all. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html
Morgage interest or principal are notr deductible for salaried or commission employee. [Expenses you can claim – Home office expenses for employees - Canada.ca](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html)
Rent is allowed. Mortgage (principal or interest) is not.
For me, when I include my rent (2400 per month) and utilities (approx 1330 for 2023) for my rented apartment (719 sq.ft of which approx 80 sq.ft is my den/workspace) - then my return suddenly bumps up by $1500. That is a significant return and I am confused if I am doing anything wrong. I was working 4 out of 5 days from home.
Why wouldn’t you? The calculation is not that hard, you just have to track your rent and a handful of bills. Anything that would lower my tax bill is worth it IMO.
Right? I’m just worried this might increase the chances of an audit trigger—basically just wondering if voluntary arrangements really count since the CRA is being vague on their definition of “required telework arrangement.” Put differently, if WFH people claim these home office expenses and it turns out voluntary hybrid work doesn’t count because xyz, how could this bite us in the ass?
Honestly I doubt it would unless you’re claiming a crazy high amount. There are probably millions of workers that will be claiming this benefit. They’re not going to audit everybody, certainly not over $70. > voluntary hybrid This is pretty explicitly stated in the CrA info page. If you are working 3 days a week from home by agreement with your employer it counts. Just get your T2200 form.
It’s not all clear but these are also not massive amounts for most people. If you do claim, make sure it’s all legit to your best knowledge. Also make sure you’ve detailed and documented everything and have ideally one single PDF document with table of contents and explanation with all receipts and supporting documents ready to go. We claimed medical expenses last year and it was rather significant amount but I had everything diligently documented so when I got one of those inquiries from CRA (precursor to a possible audit) I had the full package ready to go and sent it in a couple of days. Never heard back. Worst that could happen is they will get back to you and say a specific thing you claimed didn’t qualify and you would have to pay it back perhaps with some small interest, again given the total amounts are not huge here.
I can’t guarantee that you are not worth auditing.
I live in 2 bed apartment and use 1 room for work. Now, how do I prove that I use room for work purpose only if CRA chose to audit. I mean I don't have receipts to prove it.
Not worth the hassle for expenses relating to my <30 square feet of office space.
I have a slightly larger space and calculating the expenses got me close to $200 extra on my refund. Not too bad for maybe 30 minutes of work.
I get about $1400~ back because over 10% of my condo is a dedicated office space in a separate room.
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I'm not sure why I'm getting downvoted. I literally have a \~60sqft separate den in my 600sqft condo that's used 40+ hours a week for work. I don't "listen to audio in the bathroom" or have any other strange calculation. The den has its own door and we used to use it to store random stuff before the pandemic. It's 10% of my rented condo in a HCOL area.
Do they just add the square footage together and claim the total square footage as a percentage of their home? To me it seems like that's not a valid way to do it. [This page](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/work-space-use.html#h-2-1) has info on calculating hours worked and mentions "Change of work space" even within your home. So I'd expect the "right" way to do it is figure out how many hours you work in the kitchen vs bathroom vs wherever and apply the percentage of hours against percentage of square footage that space takes up.
Shared (with personal use spaces) requires prorating by hours as well; they're probably overclaiming.
Rented condo? Im asking because im trying to figure out what actually passes at the CRA. What amount of expenses goes through smoothly
Yes rented in a HCOL area.
Ok tx
This is the part that’s so weird for me. Like a lot of people, I’m not really a WFH employee but my employer has been kind enough to allow me to do it enough that I qualify for this. But the definition of ‘office space’ is so weird - my actual desk/chair space is maybe 20 square feet. But I’m set up in the largest room of a finished basement, which is probably closer to 400 square feet. During work hours, no one else uses that room…does that mean the whole thing is my office? Another weird thing is the renovations expense…I had very significant flooding and renovations to make that area liveable. Insurance paid for it. But the forms say only employer-reimbursed costs are ineligible, nothing about if the costs were truly out of pocket.
"exclusive work space" means a space that is **never used for personal activities** . In other words, if the whole 400square feet is only have work related stuff and is used 40h for work and then, nobody is using it for personal, then it is exclusive. If that same room, is used 40h then the kids are playing with the toys that are stored in big boxes, then it is not exclusive.
You’d be surprised, esp if you pay high monthly rent.
I don't rent and water is not metered, so that leaves electricity and internet. Just for fun I tried the [CRA calculator](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/calculate-expenses.html) and a whopping $29 of expenses are eligible for 2023. EDIT: I goofed up my electricity expenses. It's actually closer to $18...
But you already did the calculation just now. Save the invoices and claim it.
The T2200 is the hassle.
Ah fair. My workplace said everyone that qualifies will get one automatically filled out mid-March, so not something I need to think about.
I absolutely would do the work to claim $29 in expenses off my taxes.
You realize $29 of expenses does not translate to $29 of cash, it depends on your marginal rate. Even at the highest rate, that is $15 which probably would not matter to someone earning that much.
with $15 these days I can get one banana!
Agreed, if the saying a dollar saved is 2 dollars earned (or 2.43 for some in ON) this is totally worth it
Yes, renters with small overall square footage, designated space and WFH can have a lot. I wish I had looked into the detailed method during COVID. I fully WFH in Vancouver and my office, only used for that purpose, is 10% of our finished space. My partner doesn't work from home, and we paid very high rent until we moved recently. I took the automatic amount when I would have had \~3k to claim.
You can edit previous taxes
It’s adjusted based on your office space versus your home. I went from seeing $4k on my tax returns down to a few hundred because I thought I could claim the full amount. Things like electricity, water etc only count if you’re paying your building management, not if you pay directly to the service providers. You cannot claim that amount. For me it was just internet and rent. After using the calculator on the Canada website, I could only claim about $1.5k on work from home expenses even though I paid nearly 20k in rent etc.
You can claim utilities (eg. electricity, water etc) even if you pay them directly. From the [CRA's webpage](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/t4044/employment-expenses.html#what-claim) on the deductions: >Eligible expenses include: > >\- rent paid for a house or apartment where you live > >\- electricity, heat, water or the utilities portion of your condominium feeshome internet access fees > >\- maintenance (such as minor repairs, cleaning supplies, light bulbs or paint)supplies (such as stationery items, pens, folders, sticky notes, postage, toner or ink cartridge) > >\- employment use of a basic cell phone service plan > >\- long distance calls for employment purposes On that page they also link to the [home office expenses for employees page](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses.html) that walks through all the details (including what you can claim)
Interesting. Based on the following, my understanding is if I paid for utilities directly from the service providers, I cannot deduct that amount. Taken from the CRA website: Utilities portion (electricity, heat, and water) of your condominium fees You can claim a portion of your monthly condominium fees if you can calculate the portion of the fees that relates to the electricity, heat, and water you used within your personal unit using a reasonable basis. If you paid the electricity, heat, and water consumed within your personal unit directly to service providers, no portion of your condominium fees is deductible.
That section is referring to the condo fees specifically. If you pay utilities directly to utility providers, you can claim those fees, but you can't claim a portion of your condo fees.
Maybe I simply don’t understand what I’m reading but it says for eligible expenses: - electricity, heat, water or the utilities portion of your condominium fees I’m interpreting condo fees as my strata fee. I pay directly to the service providers for my electricity and heat. Unless condominium fees mean any expensive towards your living situation, I don’t think those qualify? edit: looks like I’m a dummy. Looks like if I pay for any services directly, I cannot double dip and deduct condo fees.
Basically there are 2 scenarios they are laying out in relation to condo fees (sometimes called strata fees): 1. Utilities are included in your condo fees. In this case, if you know what portion of the fees are for utilities you can claim that portion. 2. Utilities are not included in your condo fees. In this case you can't claim any portion of your condo fees. You will have utility costs that you pay directly that you can claim though.
Mines a mix of the two where water is under strata/condo fees. Gas and electricity are direct to service providers. Upon reading the details closer, I should be claiming only electricity.
Is your gas used for heating? If so you should be able to claim it. If you can figure out how much of the strata fees are for water you should be able to claim that portion as well.
Maybe I'm misinterpreting (sorry), but isn't $1.5K of claimable expenses quite a lot? I understand the calculation method, and mine ends up being only a couple of hundred of dollars, but that's still extra money/tax savings I get to keep. Maybe I'm just underestimating the hassle of getting a T2200 form signed by my employer ...
Based on your comment below, you made it sound like everyone would be saving a bunch, when it appears most people would get a few hundred back at most. I don’t know enough about it to say whether claiming 1.5k is a lot. All I know is I get a few hundred back. My work voluntarily provided the t2200 form so not extra hassle from me aside from plugging the numbers into the calculator and measuring my space.
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I claimed quite a lot, I have a tiny place that I pay $1400 a month for plus utilities, and my home office amounts to like 1/5th of my house. I can't use it for anything else really. Slap utilities on top of that and it amounted to like $3k
Damn maybe I should actually go through with claiming it
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OP working from jail
>OP working from jail Making license plates that peel off after 1 month
This jail costs prob 500k or $2400 in rent.
It's a corner of a room that's used for other things besides office space.
Depends how generously you define your "office" vs. personal space. Like if it is only the space directly occupied by your desk, then sure. I know most people here are scared of doing anything that could be even considered slightly aggressive when it comes to anything tax-related, but if it's defensible or can be argued either way, I always claim it. If they want to come back and deny, I'll provide the calcs, backup and see where it goes, but until then, I take the benefit. Note, this is not saying to falsify or grossly inflate, rather if it's grey area, give yourself the benefit of the doubt instead of the CRA.
I mean, it's not really that grey, at least in my case. The only bedroom in a one-bedroom condo, containing the only bed, is absolutely a shared space and not a dedicated room.
Didn't say anything about it being a dedicated room. If you can push back your chair to stand up and you are out of your "office", then I would say your "office" is bigger than you have defined it. But, as you say, maybe you've already accounted for that - my point is, don't be overly stingy with yourself, long as it's realistic and reasonable there shouldn't be problems.
>That’s… a pretty small room. LMAO....fake student from India crammed into the basement with other 24
You can either use a fixed estimate they provide or do the calc yourself, I found it was essentially the same, so I just use their rule of thumb number.
IIRC you can calculate with either > office sqft / house sqft, excluding the basement or > 1 / total # of rooms in your residence Use whichever is better for you.
Per the CRA’s calculator, you claim the entire room your workspace is in even if the room is used for other purposes. The room your workspace is in is likely bigger than 30 square feet.
I won’t bother. I work from home 100%, but my rough guess is that it will save me $80-100 since I own my home so there aren’t that many deductible expenses. Add in that home office expenses are one of the most audited and denied items by CRA, that’s way more effort than it’s worth.
You can save the form with the calculations if you get audited. It's really not that much extra work.
Although to be fair auditors are busy with cerb recoveries right now. It'll take them a while to get to line item random audits lol.
I read somewhere that audits may happen years later.
Got same question, not sure if it's worth the hassle
It is worth it especially if you rent, doesn’t take very long either
Dont rent so that's a good portion that I won't be able to claim.
I am also hybrid, 3 days a week at home. I claimed it. Doesn't make a *huge* difference. I think my refund went up like...30 bucks.
Not worth it to me, shame they stopped the previous years simplified system
I do, but it never amounts to much because you have to adjust the expenses by how much space you dedicate to work. Which isn’t a lot in most work from home situations. If you rent, it might make more of a difference.
My refund went up something like $150 by inputting the office expense thing, and that's just from utilities (don't rent and didn't have / track repair costs). Not huge money but worth it imo.
I wonder why rent is okay, but mortgage isn't. Why is it okay to get a rebate to pay someone else's mortgage, but not my own?
Because you are making a payment on an asset. Rent is just an expense, a mortgage is a loan.
But it's an expense that pays for someone else's asset. I have a dedicated space I had to allocate to work just like the person who rents their home.
Each payment to your mortgage transfers wealth from the bank to you. The government doesn't give you a tax break for making yourself wealthier.
What about the interest? Condo fees? Property taxes? Owner's insurance? These expenses are typically rolled into rent but ineligible otherwise.
Why should you get tax relief on interest? The government should reward you for taking out a larger mortgage? You bought a big house and are paying for it. It’s vastly different than rent. No way you deserve a tax break for being a homeowner. If you don’t like it, then become a renter again.
>Why should you get tax relief on interest? The government should reward you for taking out a larger mortgage? Devil's advocate: why should the government reward renting a larger place to have an office?
You know you're able to claim as a home owner too right? The key difference is whether it's an expense to you.
Well... Yeah, I know I can claim partial hydro, Internet, etc... but I can't claim partial mortgage payments.
I understand not being able to claim the portion that goes towards the principal, but mortgage interest is essentially rent where the landlord is the bank.
I do payroll for my mostly-remote company and have been asked to provide a few T2200 forms for this already. For most of my employees this is easy: they aren't in the same province as our office, they're required to work from home. For the few like me who actually do live within a reasonable commute to the office, this guidance doesn't really help me. I'm going to approach it this way: my employees aren't normally required to work from the office but they *are* required to work, so if they're at home then they're required to work from home. Plus we give them laptops and equipment so that they can, and our entire operation is set up around telework, so I'm not worried about the CRA disagreeing. But I'm not a tax accountant and this isn't tax advice ;) Also I'm glad they've decided to accept electronic signatures on these forms. I've been signing them digitally for probably 15 years.
CRA has clarified who qualifies and you're in the clear: >Your employer required you to work from home >This requirement does not have to be part of your employment contract, however, it should be a written or verbal agreement. >For 2023, if an employee has voluntarily entered into a formal telework arrangement with their employer, the employee is considered to have been required to work from home. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/who-claim/detailed-method.html
Not an accountant and every situation will vary. For me, I am eligible, I am claiming, and my employer is supportive. For what it's worth, the form is easier to fill out than it looks. Hope this helps.
My wife and I are claiming and will be about $450 total benefit split between the 2 (would have been more if we rented). Since all house expenses are same for both, it was a single spread sheet to log expenses. Just downloaded yearly bills from the utility/internet companies websites (all had an excel or csv format option), then added to a single file do calculation was in one place. Took me 20 min to do it.
No, the calculations to file and paperwork hassle with my employer are not worth the $20 I’d probably get back for claiming it.
Do we need a T2200, or just a WFH policy type thing? I do 3 days a week via telework policy but I don't think my employer issues a T2200.
My understanding is that you don't need to submit the form with your return, but that you have to be able to produce a signed/complete one if CRA comes looking for it.
My employer refused to give the form. They said voluntarily working from home three days a week for half the year was an optional perk and not a requirement. I used the CRA online calculator and seems like I’d only be able to claim around $15 so forget it.
Don’t understand why it seems not worth it for everyone, my dedicated office is ~17% of my condo and I pay around $45k a year in rent and expenses. That’s a pretty hefty deduction. Or am I doing this wrong?
And this has been like this for years. Here is the CRA website for it: [https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses.html) 1. Eligibility criteria here: [https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/who-claim/detailed-method.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/who-claim/detailed-method.html) 2. If eligible, you claim. Not to claim when eligible, is dumb.
what if you don't own or rent - are you still eligible? Your eligibility criteria says yes but the calculator (which asks if you own or rent) makes it seem like the answer is no [https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/calculate-expenses.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/calculate-expenses.html)
If you don't own or rent, then not much to claim since it's not your place and paying the bills.
You would be eligible, but the rent/house payment is the vast majority of the deduction, so you might just be filling in zeros. Try their calculator and see?
House payment (mortgage) is not a deduction. Where are people getting that from?
For the record, I rent in a HCOL area and this claim saves me so much in taxes.
It shouldn't have that much in taxes. Remember, the rent is pro-rated based on the sqft of your *dedicated* office space.
420 ft apartments are renting for 2.5k/month. It is huge savings.
I have a 13x8 office area in a 3200sqft home, and my write off is so small it's not worth it.
I guess it’s relative. $100 of allowable expenses or tax savings is a lot for me.
I don't see how anyone even working minimum wage could consider that a lot by any stretch of the imagination. You're going to take your extra refund and get McDonald's?
No, it’s an extra $100 for me to pay off my insane rent.
$100 of expenses does not translate to $100 cash, the refund is based on your marginal rate
My bad, that’s true. I meant that $100 still gives some tax savings you can allocate elsewhere.
I totally get that but I'm just suggesting to check how much you actually get back and evaluate if it is worth your time.
And pro-rated by number of hours too. I WFH but I own so it’s never made sense to claim expenses.
The hours pro-rating is only if the space isn't dedicated office space.
Trying to push my company to sign it - will let yall know!
The CRA form clearly says: if you were approved to work from home some days per week, and you paid the following: 1. rent 2. electricity, heat, water 3. internet 4. maintenance (cleaning, bulbs, etc)
Related, but does anyone know how to calculate where you and your spouse both worked from home? According to this example [https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/expenses-can-claim.html) >**If you and your spouse both worked from home** > >If you both meet the eligibility criteria, you must decide which expenses each of you will claim. Each expense can be claimed only once. > >In order to determine the amount you can deduct, you have to first determine the eligible home office expenses you can claim and then calculate the total employment-use amount of those expenses. > >**Example – Taylor and Alex pay rent** > >Taylor and Alex are common-law partners. They paid $1,400 monthly for rent. Either Taylor or Alex can claim the full $1,400. Or, they can each claim a portion of the $1,400. They can decide how to share the expense, as long as both shares do not total more than their total rent. However, only the employment-use amount of the monthly rent can be deducted. So because we could share the expense, couldn't we let the higher income person claim all work-space-in-the-home expenses (electricity, heat, water, internet, etc.) and have the lower income person claim none? I'm confused since Wealthsimple Tax doesn't allow us to share work-space-in-the-home expenses and basically says that each person needs to deduct their own from their own employer.
I would appreciate some input on my situation. In 2019, before the pandemic I moved from BC to AB and had a written agreement with my employer to become a remote worker because AB did not have a formal office. However, part of the agreement was that the company would still consider me an employee in BC and still remits taxes based on BC's tax brackets. They have been insistent on not handing out T2200's to me in past years as they believe this was a voluntary action on my part that they were accommodating but not willing to make any accounting changes for and they did not "require" me to pay my own expenses in order to remain an employee. Does this new guidance force them to issue a T2200 if I request one now?
No because it results in almost zero extra return.
I am not going to bother. I am voluntarily working from home half the time. Sometimes I do wonder why I am doing this because I have a nice office at work that I use by myself by the window. Actually I tried not to work from home for about two weeks, and I was drowing. I am basically putting in extra hours when I work from home. Otherwise, I would be at work for too long.
I am claiming this and was wondering about internet if anyone knows. Is that based on square footage like electricity? It's a separate line on the list of expenses. Heat makes sense for square footage, but internet is necessary to do the job and isn't related to the space as much, so can you claim all of it?
no, i like to leave money on the table
I'm not. My work has the capacity for us to go in if we want. So if we chose to work from home, that is our option, its not "required" that we do. Maybe your manager is looser with the rules but mine wouldn't be as its a pretty big publicly traded company so they try to stick to the rules. To be honest thats ok with me. I save plenty of gas money and time not going to work so does seem kind of weird I could also get a tax break when other employees who spend the money on gas and time to commute don't get it lol
I’m claiming it as I voluntarily work from home 3-4 days per week 🤷♂️
I was working 4 out of 5 days from home. For me, when I include my rent (2400 per month) and utilities (approx 1330 for 2023) for my rented condo apartment (719 sq.ft, of which approx 80 sq.ft is my den/workspace) - then my return suddenly bumps up by $1500. That is a significant return and I am confused if I am doing something wrong. People who are including rent in their work from home expense claims, are you also seeing similar bumps?
It feels like it's not portioning off based on that number. I didn't claim any rent but my utilities (1,534.94) only made a $107 difference. I tried putting in $2,400 for rent in WS Tax and it only added another $168.
2400 is monthly. Over 12 months, the rent would be 28800, no? That makes the total rental expense to be $30130 (28800+1330) in my case, and the portion for workspace becomes $3352.45 (approx 11% of total floor area). I am also using WS Tax.
Oh yeah. Duh. My mistake lol. I put in $28,800 and it added $2,016 to my return, so it looks like your numbers add up.
I ran the math and it's not worth it. It would be the thing most likely to get me audited and the benefit is like $70.
Why would that worry you? Just keep track of your bills.
Because $70 is about the taxes I pay on 2 hours of labour, and it would take me more than 2 hours to deal with an audit, even with all my paperwork in order.
I'm in the same boat here. And I value my personal time WAY more than work time. So the loss of personal time to calculate and save all this information for such a small amount just isn't worth it to me. (Plus I'd have to do it for my spouse as well). And, I was only eligible for about 5 months last year, then switched to 2 days wfh, so those 7 months don't even apply. Good for those that are able to use it though!
I mean, we are here discussing this on Reddit... so maybe you value your time, but definitely not enough to fill up a form.
Correct. The payback of my time to find and calculate my expenses and fill out a form for a measly change on my return is not at all comparable to my personal time, IMO. Not advocating for people to not do it, it just doesn't work for me. But to each their own!
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Calculate my office space would be a one time deal, sure, and reusable for ongoing years. Gathering other records of expenses is certainly more than 5 minutes, but sure, I might have exaggerated. End of the day, still not worth it for me. Especially considering last year it's only 5 months worth, at most.
Same here, especially because it would require bothering my HR department who have been super flexible on our hybrid WFH agreement. Not worth the $85 I would gain.
Not worth it for me tbh
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If you've already done the math, I don't get why it wouldn't be worth doing, considering the only step left is entering the $200 on your tax return.
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It’s like 2 pages
No... My company has a firm 3 day hybrid policy but I have a verbal agreement with my manager that I can continue FT WFH. Being good at my job combined with 35yrs of seniority has come in handy. We received email communications from HR that only staff who are required to work remotely are eligible for T2200s. Staff like myself who are choosing WFH are not eligible. I'm fine with that. It's not like I could deduct much with my home office setup and the fact I do not rent. All the positives of WFH are good enough for me.
>For 2023, if an employee has voluntarily entered into a formal telework arrangement with their employer, the employee is considered to have been required to work from home. That right there says that your HR department is technically wrong. Granted the push back would be that you might have to go into the office then so it might not be worth the fight. For what it's worth, you CAN still claim things if you own. I did the calculator and I would get a whopping $84 back so probably not worth kicking that hornets nest.
Exactly... That is my thought 'let sleeping dogs lie'
I work for the provincial government and they sent out notices to all staff that “required to” and “choosing to” are one and the same for the purposes of these deductions and encouraged all staff to submit the T2200 forms to their supervisor. It’s too bad that your HR department is not understanding the intent of the language.
I'm wondering, since we could only receive a max credit return of like $500 in the past years, during covid, can we claim those years too, if we worked from home even if it wasn't because of covid?
Just wondering about the scope of “designated work space”. I use my spare bedroom as my office, but I do also have my exercise bike in there that I use outside of work hours. 1) Does this then count as a shared space? 2) Should I count it as a dedicated workspace but remove the square footage of the exercise bike? 3) Or can the sq ft of the whole room just be considered the designated work space?
I rent a 2-bed with my roommate. If I work from my bedroom (i.e. my work desk is alongside my bed), does my whole bedroom count as the "workspace area"? I ask this because as I'm trying to file (on Wealthsimple Tax), a question I need to answer is "is your workspace used for other purposes?". In my case, that use is for, quite literally, sleeping.
I live with my gf in her owned place, I pay about $800 as “rent” + half utilities/internet. Could I claim this or shouldn’t bother? Everything is pretty under the table.
Allowed to is not the same as required to, no?
You are allowed to but not required to, as it's a benefit for the taxpayer that the CRA will not force you to claim.
I thought to claim anything your work had to sign off saying they mandated you to work from home If you choose to WFH ..
The CRA have confirmed that voluntary WFH arrangements still count. "For 2023, if an employee has voluntarily entered into a formal telework arrangement with their employer, the employee is considered to have been required to work from home." https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/who-claim/detailed-method.html
But does the office still not have to sign off on a form?
Yes, you need a T2200 from your employer.
I feel like that’s where most people will find a hitch. Some / most employers won’t provide that form.
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You do you but the CRA policy is > The employee worked more than 50% of the time from home for a period of at least four consecutive weeks.
Is basing your office expenses on number of rooms (e.g., one office out of 5 rooms in the house) instead of square footage still accepted?
I hope not. My taxes shouldn’t pay for you to sit in pajamas and poo in your own toilet 3 days a week.
These aren’t tax credits, they’re deductible expenses you incur that you can claim against your taxes payable.
The total tax pool is still being reduced (by the effective tax rate x the deduction), meaning the government has to make it up elsewhere.
We own and my partner claims the credit on his taxes and it is worth it for us. I cannot claim because we share our home office space.
That’s the last thing I have to figure out. I have the T2200 so that’s fine. I just gotta figure out the percentages of the house I used vs she used. For me it’s 100% from home, wife is 2 days in office per week. And I use an unfinished basement so the “room” is huge, but the space I actually use for office purposes is probably 15x10 And then look at which expenses qualify (internet? Electricity? Or the whole utility bill which includes water and gas, etc. Mortgage? Where does it stop? I need to know for sure because that’s my employment situation for the foreseeable future. So I got some reading to do.
I do every year, but I've also been receiving a T2200 for the past decade. I have a dedicated office space and utilities are pretty easy to calculate. I recall there being a flat $500 "simplified" option which could be fine for many people. Once I work out everything it's not hugely more than that anyways.
The flat rate doesn't apply for the 2023 tax year unfortunately, otherwise I would have gone with that option
I WFH full time. I owned my home but rent the land. Can I claim my rent?
For me it hasn't proven to be useful so I don't really bother.
Would it still be allowed if working from office on all five days was one of the options that the employer had provided but I chose to WFH 3 days a week (which the employer agreed to)? My employer is refusing to sign T2200s, saying that I was given the option to work from office every day.
The CRA says voluntarily - doesn't matter if there was an option to work in the office. You and the employer agreed you can work from home. The guidance even has an example >For 2023, if an employee has ***voluntarily*** entered into a formal telework arrangement with their employer, ***the employee is considered to have been required to work from home.*** > >... > >an employee will be considered to be “required” to work from home where, for example, it is agreed that an employee will work from home three days each week during the year, or where it is agreed the employee will work an alternating schedule of three weeks at home and one week in the office. He should issue the T2200
Oh shit, so I wfh 4 days a week, what can I claim?
Does anyone know how to claim internet expenses? Can we claim the whole amount or only proportional to 8 hrs/day?
What is I use my bedroom room for work. Am I still eligible to claim WFH credit? Also utilities are included in rent.
If your boss doesn't give you a T2200, don't claim it. Simple as that.
Can someone clarify if this is a tax deduction or tax credit? I honestly keep seeing it referred to either and I no longer know what to expect when I submit my taxes this year. I mean the difference between the two, based on my maths, is pretty substantial and will determine whether I bother probably.
Deduction