Expenses Relating to Working From Home – Questions About the T2200 Tax Form

Many members of the UBC faculty and staff community have moved to working-from-home scenarios as a result of COVID-19 measures, and the university’s finance teams have received some questions about whether UBC will be issuing T2200 tax forms for the 2020 tax year.

The T2200 tax form relates to Declaration of Conditions of Employment and enables employees to deduct home-based work expenses when filing their income tax returns.
 
The university does not generally issue T2200 forms, as the requirements for employees to deduct home work space expenses are rarely met. As we follow the guidance of the Canada Revenue Agency, there is currently no plan to change our practice. The guidelines of the CRA are as follows:

"To deduct home work space expenses for income tax purposes employees must be required by their contract of employment with UBC to work from home and directly pay for those expenses without reimbursement from UBC. Furthermore, one of the following conditions must also be met:

1. The work space must be where the employee principally (more than 50% of the time) performs their employment duties.
2. The work space must be used exclusively by the employee to earn employment income and be used on a regular and continuous basis for meeting customers or other persons in the ordinary course of performing the duties of employment."

More information on claiming employment expenses is available on the UBC Finance website. We will continue to monitor the situation for any change, and will provide an update if any further guidance is provided by the Canada Revenue Agency.