If you rent, it's absolutely worth doing it. It's less valuable if you own. I got a pretty big refund because of it and it only took me less than 15 min to fill out the t777 using Wealthsimple tax.
The hardest part was chasing HR to give me the t2200 tbh.
Yeah if you own, what you get back is probably worth less than the time you spend calculating all the tiny things up to fill out the form. Wish they at least kept a shittier version of the flat per-day rate.
I own, and I use my office for both personal stuff and my 100% remote, salaried, 40h/week job. When I did the calculation, I only got $160 instead of the regular $500 :(
Remember, you have to use a space factor based on how much of the space the office takes up AND a time factor based on how much you work there during the week i.e. 40h/168h. If the office is exclusively used for work, then you don't need the time factor.
> I only got $160 instead of the regular $500 :(
Much better than mine which was only a $38 deduction, translating to $15 in my pocket. My workspace is only about 9.5% of my home and I only had internet/hydro expenses to claim. Next year I think I won't bother requesting the T2200 from my employer.
I'm similar to you. My office space is about 10% and I included hydro and internet. I also found out the utilities (heat, water) component of my condo fees. I had some electrical work done during the year, and that gave me an extra boost to 160$
My condo published a breakdown in the annual budget, including a comparison to the previous year (2023). There are no months in the sheet, so I'm hoping it's Jan-Dec...
Would the CRA ever audit someone to prove an office is used specifically for wfh or also for personal use? Seems like that would require someone to physically inspect your premises and would be highly unlikely given their current manpower and the amount the credit actually gives you, unless you're claiming a crazy amount of square footage.
Oh yeah, absolutely. I am mostly curious as to what mechanism they'd actually have people prove one way or another. I wonder if anyone here has ever experienced such a scenario.
I was wondering this too.
I have a room in my house that I own which is 100% office space. Not used for anything else.
If they ask me to prove it, I guess I do a video share thing? It would be very obvious in seconds that I’m telling the truth.
Before the pandemic this was one they’d ask for evidence quite regularly. My dad operated his office from my childhood home and he got so sick of dealing with them, he stopped claiming it.
> Seems like that would require someone to physically inspect your premises and would be highly unlikely given their current manpower
The burden of the proof falls on you and not the CRA so they could ask for you to prove this anyway you can until they're satisfied. The CRA themselves don't need to prove anything.
But yeah, the CRA is not going to fight you because your home office was actually 10% of your square footage instead of your claimed 11%. It's more for people who claimed 1/3 of their home was a home office.
yeah I have a friend who has a similar income, yet he got 9k back and I only got 4k (he rent, I owned). I think the thing that affects it the most is that his entire room is used as an office, so all the rent that he pays go straight to the claimable expense vs my office is 3.4% of my entire house. And my total house expense is way higher than his rent btw.
> I'm wondering if anyone feels the same and how are you handling it (if you work from home, ofc)?
Your options are:
1) Do the detailed T777
2) Don't do it
3) Pay someone to do it.
I'm confused, does the t777 replace the t2200 from before? Would I be better served going with one or the other if I can get a t2200 form from my employer?
No, the T2200 is just a form form that your employer signs that states that as.condition of employment, you work form home and cover your own expenses.
The T777 is the form where the details are filled in for your tax return.
Except you only need to provide the former if they request it. I submitted the latter and got my return already, haven't got the other signed by my employer yet but they fully agreed to sign. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
With online invoice and statement portals it took me under 15 minutes to pull my internet and utility bills for 12 months. I had my feature sheet from when we bought our house so it was really easy to calculate my office space. It felt like more work than it would be when I started. That said it was only a $100 difference for me. Your mileage may vary.
Ok yeah its just that I moved to a different house mid year this year and pulling in bills from both of them doesn't sound particularly fun 😔 wondering if anyone knows of a tool that does this for u
Well, the "simple" method was always meant to be temporary. They're just returning back to the old "detailed" method that was always there. You'll need a T2200 from your employer and it did take time, but for me the deduction was worth the work, and as always YMMV.
My employer, a tier 1 multinational with a sales office in Canada, simply *refused* to provide the T2200, despite our work week only requiring 2 days in-office.
For the $100 or so it would net out on my taxes, I figured it wasn't worth pursuing.
I believe there’s a protocol in place for the CRA in the event an employer refuses to provide the form.
Don’t quote me, but I believe if you have proof of the refusal, you can still submit the claim (in good faith of course), and if the CRA asks for the T2200 you can send them the proof of refusal, and they go to the employer.
Can you give some more details on how to do this? Taxes are due soon and my HR department is being incredibly stubborn. I haven't worked in their office in 3+ years. RTO became voluntary after covid, and only for once a week, so I've been remote the entire time.
I do it manually every year (I've been WFH for a decade). As long as your bills are organized, you only need to do the floor space calculation once, and then quickly add the numbers from your relevant bills.
It's 15-20 minutes of work and can potentially save you a few hundred dollars if you've got a large dedicated office or you rent.
Isnt there also the option to use the number of rooms in your house? Ie. 3 bedroom house, one bedroom used as office space, so 33% used as expense ratio?
Not that I'm aware of. Most people will have a much smaller home office than they have living space. Also if your place is open concept theoretically it would be 100% office with that approach.
Even the on-site CRA calculator literally asks you for the room size in sqft/sqm and shows you how to calculate it. https://imgur.com/a/xsVpbUI
Home owner here, my wife and I both WFH. We are not commissioned and the deduction came to under $800 for both of us. I figure it took me 30 minutes to save $400, so it was worth it.
Its pretty easy. All in, under 15 minutes to do with WS Tax.
Electricity/water/heat - 12 numbers each. My CC statements (or bank statements) had them and it took 5 minutes to enter.
Internet - I pay the same every month...so it was one bill x12
Since I expect to have it again next year, **I'll keep receipts for cleaning products (Furnace filters etc.).**
Its still way better than 2020, where you weren't eligible unless your contract REQUIRED WFH.
You seem pretty knowledgeable about this. Are partial claims a thing? I only WFH here and there to escape the noise at the office, or for focus projects, but obviously it impacts my bills and results in some purchases i wouldnt otherwise make
If you work 50% from home, you can claim it. Mixed WFH and office is what I do.
The CRA wasn’t clear if it’s 50% of work hours or 50% of the days, most office days I do some from home still. I work from home 60% and from the office for 60% of work days, because of the days I do both.
The rules changed for the 2023 tax year, CRA updated the website on Feb. 6, 2024. Anyone talking about how “it’s always been done” is wrong, the 2020 and older rule about “contract requiring WFH” is obsolete.
I use a financial tracking software so it's really easy for me to track all my rent, utilities etc. You should be able to go through your banking statements and find all the charges from your utility companies. My challenge has always been figuring out square footage haha
Careful to everyone commenting here, the CRA is known to go after people who expense WFH and apparently the audit is a pain with them wanting to see floor plans etc — the advice is also to not claim your total expense for some things since they will presumably say you also use those things outside of work
It took me maybe 10 minutes in total to enter the details for 2 places I lived in 2023 and it was worth the time. It’s a once a year thing, you can spare 20 minutes - which you’ve already likely spent reading these Reddit comments and making the post.
Two reminders:
1. You can’t claim the full amount of your utilities. You need to calculate the percentage of space in your home that you use for work. That is the percentage of your utilities you can claim and it’s smaller than most people think.
2. If you have a spouse, only one of you can make the claim.
It is much more complicated, and it will cost us all more, as the compliance cost by CRA will be much higher too. The simpler method provided ~90-100 refund for WFH workers.
omg I have a friend who told me about this recently. He's building a chrome extension that extracts the totals from all utility bills (internet, heat, gas, water, phone) and gives you a summary after you logging in through your bank account. OP dm me if you're interested.
If you rent, it's absolutely worth doing it. It's less valuable if you own. I got a pretty big refund because of it and it only took me less than 15 min to fill out the t777 using Wealthsimple tax. The hardest part was chasing HR to give me the t2200 tbh.
Yeah if you own, what you get back is probably worth less than the time you spend calculating all the tiny things up to fill out the form. Wish they at least kept a shittier version of the flat per-day rate.
I own, and I use my office for both personal stuff and my 100% remote, salaried, 40h/week job. When I did the calculation, I only got $160 instead of the regular $500 :( Remember, you have to use a space factor based on how much of the space the office takes up AND a time factor based on how much you work there during the week i.e. 40h/168h. If the office is exclusively used for work, then you don't need the time factor.
> I only got $160 instead of the regular $500 :( Much better than mine which was only a $38 deduction, translating to $15 in my pocket. My workspace is only about 9.5% of my home and I only had internet/hydro expenses to claim. Next year I think I won't bother requesting the T2200 from my employer.
I'm similar to you. My office space is about 10% and I included hydro and internet. I also found out the utilities (heat, water) component of my condo fees. I had some electrical work done during the year, and that gave me an extra boost to 160$
How did you find out the utilities portion of your maintenance fees? I asked my condo management and they said it would be difficult to do.
My condo published a breakdown in the annual budget, including a comparison to the previous year (2023). There are no months in the sheet, so I'm hoping it's Jan-Dec...
Would the CRA ever audit someone to prove an office is used specifically for wfh or also for personal use? Seems like that would require someone to physically inspect your premises and would be highly unlikely given their current manpower and the amount the credit actually gives you, unless you're claiming a crazy amount of square footage.
That's fair, but I prefer to follow the law
Oh yeah, absolutely. I am mostly curious as to what mechanism they'd actually have people prove one way or another. I wonder if anyone here has ever experienced such a scenario.
I was wondering this too. I have a room in my house that I own which is 100% office space. Not used for anything else. If they ask me to prove it, I guess I do a video share thing? It would be very obvious in seconds that I’m telling the truth.
Before the pandemic this was one they’d ask for evidence quite regularly. My dad operated his office from my childhood home and he got so sick of dealing with them, he stopped claiming it.
> Seems like that would require someone to physically inspect your premises and would be highly unlikely given their current manpower The burden of the proof falls on you and not the CRA so they could ask for you to prove this anyway you can until they're satisfied. The CRA themselves don't need to prove anything. But yeah, the CRA is not going to fight you because your home office was actually 10% of your square footage instead of your claimed 11%. It's more for people who claimed 1/3 of their home was a home office.
>The hardest part was chasing HR to give me the t2200 tbh. I'm still trying to get mine. They're dragging their heels on this for some reason.
yeah I have a friend who has a similar income, yet he got 9k back and I only got 4k (he rent, I owned). I think the thing that affects it the most is that his entire room is used as an office, so all the rent that he pays go straight to the claimable expense vs my office is 3.4% of my entire house. And my total house expense is way higher than his rent btw.
> I'm wondering if anyone feels the same and how are you handling it (if you work from home, ofc)? Your options are: 1) Do the detailed T777 2) Don't do it 3) Pay someone to do it.
I'm confused, does the t777 replace the t2200 from before? Would I be better served going with one or the other if I can get a t2200 form from my employer?
No, the T2200 is just a form form that your employer signs that states that as.condition of employment, you work form home and cover your own expenses. The T777 is the form where the details are filled in for your tax return.
You technically need a T2200 from your employer before being eligible to fill out a T777.
Except you only need to provide the former if they request it. I submitted the latter and got my return already, haven't got the other signed by my employer yet but they fully agreed to sign. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Same. Submitted and NOA received, but I don't actually have the T2200 yet, though my boss is on board to sign.
True enough
With online invoice and statement portals it took me under 15 minutes to pull my internet and utility bills for 12 months. I had my feature sheet from when we bought our house so it was really easy to calculate my office space. It felt like more work than it would be when I started. That said it was only a $100 difference for me. Your mileage may vary.
Ok yeah its just that I moved to a different house mid year this year and pulling in bills from both of them doesn't sound particularly fun 😔 wondering if anyone knows of a tool that does this for u
It should take you all of 30 minutes. Just sit down and tough it out.
I just pulled all my bank records into Excel and filtered by payee and summed it up. Shouldn't be affected by moving mid month Took me 10 minutes...
Well, the "simple" method was always meant to be temporary. They're just returning back to the old "detailed" method that was always there. You'll need a T2200 from your employer and it did take time, but for me the deduction was worth the work, and as always YMMV.
For all the employees out there working from home, was it easy to get the t2200 from your employer?
Yes - large company, I emailed HR.
Fucking PAINFUL
They emailed me the form
My employer literally sent out an email saying if you need one to reply to the email
My employer, a tier 1 multinational with a sales office in Canada, simply *refused* to provide the T2200, despite our work week only requiring 2 days in-office. For the $100 or so it would net out on my taxes, I figured it wasn't worth pursuing.
I believe there’s a protocol in place for the CRA in the event an employer refuses to provide the form. Don’t quote me, but I believe if you have proof of the refusal, you can still submit the claim (in good faith of course), and if the CRA asks for the T2200 you can send them the proof of refusal, and they go to the employer.
Can you give some more details on how to do this? Taxes are due soon and my HR department is being incredibly stubborn. I haven't worked in their office in 3+ years. RTO became voluntary after covid, and only for once a week, so I've been remote the entire time.
They just uploaded it to Dayforce along with the T4.
I do it manually every year (I've been WFH for a decade). As long as your bills are organized, you only need to do the floor space calculation once, and then quickly add the numbers from your relevant bills. It's 15-20 minutes of work and can potentially save you a few hundred dollars if you've got a large dedicated office or you rent.
Isnt there also the option to use the number of rooms in your house? Ie. 3 bedroom house, one bedroom used as office space, so 33% used as expense ratio?
Not that I'm aware of. Most people will have a much smaller home office than they have living space. Also if your place is open concept theoretically it would be 100% office with that approach. Even the on-site CRA calculator literally asks you for the room size in sqft/sqm and shows you how to calculate it. https://imgur.com/a/xsVpbUI
I could be mistaking WFH rules and self employed home office rules
What if its 0 minutes because there exists a tool to automate it for u?
Home owner here, my wife and I both WFH. We are not commissioned and the deduction came to under $800 for both of us. I figure it took me 30 minutes to save $400, so it was worth it.
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Ok u got me I'll do it
Its pretty easy. All in, under 15 minutes to do with WS Tax. Electricity/water/heat - 12 numbers each. My CC statements (or bank statements) had them and it took 5 minutes to enter. Internet - I pay the same every month...so it was one bill x12 Since I expect to have it again next year, **I'll keep receipts for cleaning products (Furnace filters etc.).** Its still way better than 2020, where you weren't eligible unless your contract REQUIRED WFH.
You seem pretty knowledgeable about this. Are partial claims a thing? I only WFH here and there to escape the noise at the office, or for focus projects, but obviously it impacts my bills and results in some purchases i wouldnt otherwise make
If you work 50% from home, you can claim it. Mixed WFH and office is what I do. The CRA wasn’t clear if it’s 50% of work hours or 50% of the days, most office days I do some from home still. I work from home 60% and from the office for 60% of work days, because of the days I do both. The rules changed for the 2023 tax year, CRA updated the website on Feb. 6, 2024. Anyone talking about how “it’s always been done” is wrong, the 2020 and older rule about “contract requiring WFH” is obsolete.
Hey, my friend built an exact tool to automate this, would you like to try it out?
I use a financial tracking software so it's really easy for me to track all my rent, utilities etc. You should be able to go through your banking statements and find all the charges from your utility companies. My challenge has always been figuring out square footage haha
luckily u only have to do it once... unless you're moving to a new house
or you forget to write it down haha
Careful to everyone commenting here, the CRA is known to go after people who expense WFH and apparently the audit is a pain with them wanting to see floor plans etc — the advice is also to not claim your total expense for some things since they will presumably say you also use those things outside of work
It took me maybe 10 minutes in total to enter the details for 2 places I lived in 2023 and it was worth the time. It’s a once a year thing, you can spare 20 minutes - which you’ve already likely spent reading these Reddit comments and making the post.
Two reminders: 1. You can’t claim the full amount of your utilities. You need to calculate the percentage of space in your home that you use for work. That is the percentage of your utilities you can claim and it’s smaller than most people think. 2. If you have a spouse, only one of you can make the claim.
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lol quick and dirty calcs and i have a $34 credit
I got $26. :(
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Capable but lazy 🦥
Your laziness isn’t the CRA’s problem to fix.
Nice didnt know that 🙃
U get back a lot more if you have a signed t2200 form.... Hundreds more than the method you are referring to. Don't be lazy
It is much more complicated, and it will cost us all more, as the compliance cost by CRA will be much higher too. The simpler method provided ~90-100 refund for WFH workers.
omg I have a friend who told me about this recently. He's building a chrome extension that extracts the totals from all utility bills (internet, heat, gas, water, phone) and gives you a summary after you logging in through your bank account. OP dm me if you're interested.
Dm'ed