Clients can claim for required PPE expenses and more home office expenses this year
While income tax deadlines are normalizing in this, the start of the third year of the pandemic, many other aspects of income tax filing haven’t yet returned to normal.
“COVID has made the tax system more complicated,” Jeffrey Zhang, District Manager for H&R Block Canada in Victoria, told Wealth Professional, as he rolled out this year’s deadlines.
The tax filing deadline is usually the last day of April. But, given that day falls on a Saturday this year, the tax filing deadlines is Monday, May 2.
The deadline for contributing to RRSPS, to reduce your taxable income for 2021, is March 1.
The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) will open its e-filing on February 21. It just closed the 2020 tax year filing this last Friday, January 28. Zhang said the current closure will allow it to system upgrades. The business filing deadline is six months after the close of your fiscal year.
While deadlines have returned to normal – unlike when they were extended at the beginning of the pandemic two years ago – Zhang said, “I don’t think we’re actually 100% back to normal.”
People are still receiving benefits, some of which are taxable – and some of which are not. Anyone who received those last year needs to report that as part of their income if those are taxable.
The CRA is allowing some home office expenses for people who had to work at home because of the pandemic. The simple formula for that is two dollars a day. It could be claimed for up to 200 days last year, but now can be claimed for 250 days, which means it’s now worth $500 rather than $400. But, people who were claiming home office expenses before that can continue to do so.
Those required to buy their own personal protective equipment for their jobs – such as car salespeople – must get their employer to sign a T2200 form – to claim those expenses.
“The CRA has sent out a lot of letters recently to verify these recipients’ eligibility, and some people had to pay it back,” said Zhang. “When you have to pay back these benefits, those are deductions that you can claim under your income for your 2022 tax year.”
