home-office

Home office expenses/T2200

CRA has come up with the additional details regarding T2200 and home office expenses. These are expected to simplify the taxation rules for employees and the employers. It consists of information regarding the helpful tools like a comprehensive calculator that covers most of the aspects of taxation, a detailed guide on forms and a redesigned T777S form.

In this release, it has been seen that it mentions a bit about the CPA Canada’s recommendation which is regarding the employees who were claiming home office expenses due to pandemic are generally not required to fill T2200 forms.

The key highlights of this release are:

  • Employees who have been working from home due to pandemic in 2020 and those who have been working from home for more than 50% of time and for at least four consecutive weeks in year 2020, would be able to claim deduction of expenses of home office.
  • The employees have the options to runs a detailed calculation or they also have option to use a temporary flat rate method, in case they qualify.
  • In case, if they use the flat rate method, then T2200 will not be required. If an employee opt for a detailed calculation, an employer would need to provide T2200 form or another form which is the shortened pandemic version of the form (Form T2200S).
  • It come under the capping $2 per day that can be claimed by an individual for each day worked at home with a limit of maximum of $400 (i.e. 200 days).
  • It has also been announced by the CRA that claiming for internet access costs will be possible giving the condition that detailed calculation approach is used for that. However, it seems that the CRA is expecting this cost to be calculated on prorate basis, the similar methods that are used in case of other utilities like heat and electricity.

The recent version of T2200S is comparatively shorter than the simplified version that has been previously circulated by CRA. The only thing an employer is supposed to do is to confirm like if the employees have worked from home due to the pandemic, whether they have been reimbursed for home office costs and the same has been reported on the employee’s T4 form.

Tax Accountant Vancouver

Deadline to file your return and pay your taxes

Pay your taxes and file the returns by 30th April 2021. Those who are self-employed or if their spouse or common law partner is self-employed (in case of availing spousal credits), the deadline to file the tax returns is 15 June 2021.

Filing the taxes is far easier now as compared to it was before. This tax season,  our tax accountant come up with many services that will make it way easier for you. Well, plan ahead and avoid the delays.

This COVID-19 pandemic might delay the entire process of filing, may slow down the assessment or might affect in receiving the refunds, benefits or credit payment. To avoid the last minute havoc, we recommend you to start well in advance. Get your documents assembled like income slips (such as your T4s forms), the receipts, assessment notice of previous tax year and income tax return’s last year copy to use it as a model.

CRA

Client Multi Factor Authentication to Access Online Services

In order to enhance the security of it online services, CRA has launched a Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) process for users or tax accountant.

Once enrolled, you need to log-in to the CRA. The user will receive a pass-code through text message or by phone call. This is needed to be entered in the system to log-in to the CRA online service for multi-factor authentication.

Being an authorized representative, you are needed to be enrolled in MFA before accessing to the online services meant for clients. Such as representative of a Client, Auto fill T1 and T2 functionality and My Account and My Business Account in order to retrieve personal tax information.

Multi-Factor Authentication

Let’s put a light on the process of enrolment which includes:

  • Put in the passcode in the CRA which is received via telephone number after choosing a method of delivery and the language of the message.

•             After enrolment, each time you log-in to CRA. You need to enter a passcode and also required for re-authentication which happens if the session times out after the inactivity for a certain period of time.