Can I claim home office expenses as an Ontario employee working from home?
Ontario employees who work from home can potentially deduct home office expenses from employment income, but the rules are strict. You must be required by your employer to maintain a home office and use it more than 50% of the time for employment duties, or use it exclusively to meet clients regularly. Your employer must certify this on CRA Form T2200 (or T2200S for a simplified version), which is not submitted to CRA but kept in case of audit.
Under the detailed method, eligible expenses include a prorated portion of rent, utilities, internet, home insurance, and maintenance costs. The proration is based on the size of your workspace relative to the total home square footage. Mortgage interest and capital cost allowance on the home are not deductible for employees (those rules apply to self-employed individuals).
The deduction is limited to your employment income — you cannot use it to create a loss. Unused amounts carry forward to the following year. CRA temporarily offered simplified flat-rate claims for COVID-19 years; confirm whether that option remains available for the current tax year.
Key takeaways
- Your employer must certify eligibility on Form T2200 — keep it on file
- The home office must be the principal place of work (50%+ of the time) or used exclusively for client meetings
- Prorate expenses based on workspace square footage as a share of the home
- Mortgage interest is not deductible for employees — only renters and those paying utilities can claim those costs