More and more taxpayers are starting to work from home which is providing for an opportunity to claim a portion of your home expenses against your net income.  This claim is based on the portion used for the office space and is dependent on your employment status. So who and what can you claim?

As a salaried employee, you can claim costs that relate to your work space for electricity, heating and maintenance. However, you cannot claim mortgage interest, property taxes, home insurance or capital cost allowance.

As an employee earning commissions, in addition to claiming all of the same items as a salaried employee, you can also claim home insurance and property taxes. But you still cannot claim mortgage interest or capital cost allowance.

Now, if you are a business owner operating from your home, you can claim all of the same expenses that a salaried or commissioned employee can claim, as well as the mortgage interest but not capital cost allowance.

A few things not specifically mentioned on Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) website are alarm monitoring and strata; both of these items I would consider to be maintenance.

Keep in mind, that if you have an office where you work as an employee or as a business owner renting another location, there are special rules around that which I will save for another blog post. Don’t want to wait for the next post, give me a call and I would be happy to discuss.