White Paper
December 15, 2021 ·
Tax Planning
As part of their federal election campaign the Liberals are set to extend the work from home expense deduction as a way to continue to support Canadians through the on-going pandemic.
Although not passed legislation, the move will extend the simplified flat-rate reporting method and increase the maximum deductible amount to $500 from $400.
Last year, due to the pandemic, the government introduced the simplified flat-rate option allowing work from home employees to claim $2 per day for office expenses every day they were required to work from home. Employees weren’t required to track expenses or obtain a Form T2200 – Declaration of Conditions of Employment from their employer.
Employees could still choose to use the detailed method if they expected their expenses to be greater than the maximum allowable under the simplified method but would be required to obtain a signed T2200 from their employer. As a measure to aid employers dealing with a greater number of work from home employees due to the pandemic, CRA provided them with a simplified version of the T2200, the T2200S, which in most cases could be used.
CRA also expanded the list of eligible expenses as more employees were required to work from home. You can find a detailed list of the eligible expenses on CRA’s website. If you have any questions regarding your eligibility for the work from home expense deduction, please contact you E.E.S. consultant.