Home office expense calculations

[Wendy2022]

On the following CRA web site (Calculate your expenses for Home office expenses for employees")

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-22900-other-employment-expenses/work-space-home-expenses/calculate-expenses.html

If I enter $2000 as expenses paid for the entire home and work space, $500 for expenses paid for the work space only, and the ratio of work space area to total home area is 10%, then the employment-use portion is $2000 X 10% + $500 * 100% = $700 (This amount will go on line 48 of the T777 form).

According to this page, expenses paid for the work space only will not be multiplied by the ratio of the work space square footage to the total square footage of the home. 

However, on UFILE there is no place to enter expenses paid for the work space only. All expenses will be multiplied by the ratio of work space area to total home area, and I get the employment-use portion of this case to be ($2000 + $500) * 10% = $250, which is much less than the $700 calculated by the CRA web site.

 

Can you suggest how to use UFILE to get the same home office expense results as this CRA website??

[Geo123]

Hello Wendy2022,

The T777 "Percentage of home being used for personal purposes: eg.96.08%" is a global variable. It can not be customized for each line item, such as "maintenance and repairs", and the CRA does not permit overrides for T1 consumer tax software.

Should you wish to have this ability you would require our professional tax return solution DTMaxfrom Thomson Reuters.  Please contact :

Sales Department 1 866 653-8629 / DT-sales@thomsonreuters.com

T1:  https://www.thomsonreuters.ca/en/dtprofessionalsuite/products/dtmax.html

[Wendy2022]

@Geo123, I contacted 1 866 653-8629 / DT-sales@thomsonreuters.com and was told they are not responsible for this.

[Geo123]

Hello Wendy2022,

I referred you to the DTMax product sales team and not for tax support.  They can not help you with your tax issue but can provide you with the professional software upgrade.

[Raaz]

@Geo123 Any update or fix for this issue?  I am seeing the same in the latest update of the ufile.

[Geo123]

Hello Raaz,

There is no update or fix necessary, it is how the software is set up.  

[Raaz]

Thanks for the quick response @Geo123. 

What would be a viable workaround to overcome when there is a discrepancy in the calculation between CRA and ufile? 

Sorry, but this does not make much sense.  If the software is setup as expected, then the two values should align.  If not, then at minimum ufile should highlight this discrepancy while filling in this section.  And perhaps also bring it to CRA's attention so that they can relax the requirements to get this resolved for this and future tax seasons.

 

[Geo123]

Hello Raaz,

There are 2 ways to calculate your home office expenses – and this is from the CRA.
If you have a dedicated office workspace, simply enter your percent of workspace (calculated by square footage) and enter your expenses/.
If you have a shared workspace, then you must calculate the time spent working in that workspace.
 
There is no fix or adjustment necessary.