Expenses you can claim

On this page

• Temporary flat rate method
• Detailed method
  • Work-space-in-the-home expenses
  • Office supplies and phone expenses
  • Limitations on work-space-in-the-home expenses

Temporary flat rate method

If you are using Temporary flat rate method , you do not need to determine your expenses to calculate your claim for home office expenses.

The temporary flat rate method is used to claim home office expenses that you paid like rent, electricity and home internet access fees, as well as office supplies like pens and paper, and cell phone minutes.

If you use the temporary flat rate method, you cannot claim any other employment expenses on line 22900 (for example motor vehicle expenses).

To determine if you are eligible, refer to: Eligibility criteria – Temporary flat rate method

Detailed method

If you are claiming the employment portion of actual amounts you paid, you use the Detailed method  to determine the amount of work-space-in-the-home expenses you can claim. You must separate the expenses between your employment use and non-employment (personal) use of your home.

To determine if you are eligible, refer to: Eligibility criteria – Detailed method

Work-space-in-the-home expenses

If you meet the eligibility criteria, you can claim a portion of certain expenses related to the use of a work space in your home.

Commission employees who sell goods or negotiate contracts (typically have an income amount in box 42 on their T4 slip), can claim some expenses that salaried employees cannot.

Can be claimed

Cannot be claimed

Salaried employees and commission employees cannot claim

• mortgage interest
• principal mortgage payments
• home internet connection fees
• furniture
• capital expenses (replacing windows, flooring, furnace, etc)^{Footnote 5}
• wall decorations

Office supplies and phone expenses

If your employer requires you to pay for office supplies or certain phone expenses, you may be able to claim those expenses.

Although you can claim these expenses, they are not related to the physical work space in your home. They are claimed on a different section of Form T777S or Form T777.

Limitations on work-space-in-the-home expenses

The work-space-in-the-home expenses you can claim are limited when:

• you work only a part of the year from your home:

  • You can only claim the expenses you paid in the part of the year you worked from home. You cannot claim the expenses you paid for the whole year.

    Example: Multiple periods working from home

    Working situation

    Kim worked from home from March 15 to May 31, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During these months, she worked exclusively from home and performed all of the duties that she normally performed at her employer’s office.

    Kim went back to the office full-time in June.

    Due to another wave of COVID-19. Kim worked exclusively from home again in November and December.

    successful Result

    Because Kim mainly (more than 50% of the time) worked from home during one or more periods of at least a month (four consecutive weeks) in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic (in this case, the first period was 11 weeks and the second period was 9 weeks), she may be able to claim the work-space-in-the-home expenses she paid for those periods if she meets the other conditions.

    • Period 1: 2021-03-15 to 2021-05-31
    • Period 2: 2021-11-01 to 2021-12-31
• you have multiple income sources:
  • You can claim work-space-in-the-home expenses only from the income the expenses relate to, and not from any other income.
• your expenses exceed your income:
  • The amount you can claim for work-space-in-the-home expenses is limited to the amount of employment income that is left after you have deducted all other employment expenses. This means that you cannot use work-space-in-the-home expenses to create or increase a loss from employment. If you cannot claim all your work-space-in-the-home expenses in the year, you can carry forward the expenses. You can claim these expenses in the next year as long as you are reporting income from the same employer. However, you cannot create or increase a loss from employment by carrying forward work-space-in-the-home expenses.
  • If you are a commission employee, you may not be able to claim your total work-space-in-the-home expenses if they exceed your commission income. To learn more, refer to: T4404 – Chapter 2 – Employees earning commission income