Home Office Expenses 2020-2021
Posted On: 05/01/22 - 0

Home Office Expenses 2020-2021 As A Deduction On A Personal Tax Return

As an employee, there are some strict CRA guidelines on whether you can claim a home office expense. Employees can claim home office expenses as a deduction on their personal tax return if CRA criteria has been met. Firstly, there is an employment contract that requires the employee to maintain an office at home. Also, in the past, the employer would certify on a form called the T2200 that the employee was required to maintain a home office due to the pandemic. This would be requested because the employee was not reimbursed for these costs.

Millions of Canadians Were Required To Work From Home

The government came up with a revised plan to help support this transition to working from home due to Covid. In 2020 workers were permitted to use a temporary flat rate method to calculate their deduction for home office expenses. Because the temporary flat rate made it easier to claim the home office expenses. Temporarily, the employer was not required to complete the T2200 certification form. For employees, the flat rate method allowed a deduction of $2 per day. This also applied if the employer provided them with the choice to work from home because of the pandemic. One condition was that the employee was required to have worked more than 50% of the time from home for a period of at least four consecutive weeks in 2020.

Heading Back To The Office

Businesses around Canada continue to discuss the return to the office. Many employees continue to work from home for all or part of their jobs. To continue to support working Canadians from home, the government has announced a revised plan. They will extend the simplified rules for deducting home office expenses and increase the temporary flat rate to $500 annually. These rules will apply to the 2021 and 2022 tax years. The CRA will be providing further guidance on how the flat rate method will apply going forward. The employers will again be exempt from issuing the T2200 in these cases and that the daily deduction rate will remain at $2 per day.

If you have any additional questions regarding this topic or any other personal tax related questions, please contact our office. We would be happy to assist you.

12203-107 Avenue.
Edmonton, Alberta.
T5M 1Y9

Call us:
780.482.7297