With unprecedented amounts of people working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has made it easier for people to claim the home office expenses deduction.
Minister of National Revenue Diane Lebouthillier said in a release that people who spent more than 50 per cent of their time working from home over a period of at least four consecutive weeks in 2020 due to COVID-19 are eligible to claim the deduction up to $400. The government has decreased the qualifying period for the deduction.
The CRA is also making it easier for anyone with larger home office expenses claims to keep using the current method to claim a deduction.
The government says:
A new temporary flat rate method will allow eligible employees to claim a deduction of $2 for each day they worked at home in that period, plus any other days they worked from home in 2020 due to COVID-19 up to a maximum of $400. Under this new method, employees will not have to get Form T2200 or Form T2200S completed and signed by their employer.
To simplify the process for employees choosing the detailed method, the CRA launched today simplified forms (Form T2200S and Form T777S) and a calculator designed specifically to assist with the calculation of eligible home office expenses.
Canada Revenue Agency
A CBC News article written by Elizabeth Thompson says the government isn’t sure if they will extend the tax credit to people who are forced to keep working from home in the new year.
The article also quotes a Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey, that says an estimated 2.4 million Canadians who do not normally work from home were doing so in October.
For more information on working from home expenses go to Canada.ca/cra-home-workspace-expenses.