Home Office Expenses 2022

Home Office Expenses:

Home Office Expenses 2022

For a portion of the 2022 tax year, many University of Windsor employees continued to work-from-home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  
We recognize that similar to 2021, faculty and staff may have questions regarding your ability to deduct home office expenses when filing your 2022 personal income tax return. For the 2022 tax year, under the Canada Revenue Agency’s new administrative policy, the taxpayer may claim home office expenses using two different methods. Below we have provided general information regarding the two methods available for claiming home office expenses. Both methods will be available to employees who were required to work for home in 2022. The  CRA’s website: How to claim - Home office expenses for employees - Canada.ca has useful tools to estimate your potential claim under each method. 

Temporary Flat Rate method

For 2022, under this simplified method, employees who worked at home due to COVID-19 more than 50% of the time, for at least four consecutive weeks during 2022 can claim an amount of $2 per working day, up to a maximum deduction of $500.  It is the employee’s responsibility to ensure that they are eligible for this deduction.  The simplified method does not require a T2200S form or for you to maintain receipts to validate your claim. Therefore, the University of Windsor will not be issuing signed T2200S, Declaration of Conditions of Employment for Working at Home Due to COVID-19 forms to all employees who were required to work from home this year.  

Detailed Claim Method

Depending on your personal circumstances, you may determine that you are eligible for deductions greater than what the temporary simplified method offers.  There are specific criteria you must meet, information you must provide and supporting documents you will be required to maintain for all the eligible expenses you claim. Expenses for which you were reimbursed by UWindsor are not eligible.  The detailed claim method requires a T2200S form to validate the conditions of your employment. Should you determine that you are eligible to claim home office expenses through the Detailed Claim Method for the 2022 tax year, you may request a validated T2200S form from Payroll Services by emailing payroll@uwindsor.ca. Please remember that in issuing the T2200S forms, the University is only certifying that employees worked at home for a period of time during 2022, during which they may have been required to pay for home office expenses directly relating to their employment duties at the University of Windsor. It will be the employee’s responsibility to self-determine which, if any, of the options for claiming employment expenses they should pursue, as well as the official details of their deductions.

The University does not provide employees with personal tax advice, and we encourage all employees who are looking to claim home office expenses to work with an income tax professional to answer questions regarding the claiming of these expenses.

Home office expenses and UWindsor: FAQ’s

The CRA has provided an eligibility checklist on its website. We encourage employees to use this tool before filing their tax return.

That is a personal decision that is entirely up to you. We encourage all employees who are looking to claim home office expenses to work with an income tax professional to answer questions regarding your ability to claim home office expenses. You may also use the tools available on the CRA website to evaluate the two options.

No, expenses that were reimbursed are not eligible.  Please note that if the University reimbursed you for non-consumables (such as equipment), those assets are the property of the University and must be returned to campus when the work from home requirements have ended.

This question is asking the University to confirm its policy about home office expenses. The inclusion of the caveat “did you or will you” is critical to how the University has to answer this question. Because it is the University’s policy that we will reimburse employees for certain home office-related expenditures incurred (for example, if a faculty member required a webcam to be able to teach from home), we are required to answer the question as “Yes” for all of our employees. This was reviewed in detail with our external tax advisors. This will not impact an employee’s tax return if you were not reimbursed for such costs.

Should you determine that you are eligible to claim home office expenses through the detailed claim method for the 2022 tax year, you may request a validated T2200S form from Payroll Services by emailing payroll@uwindsor.ca. Please remember that in issuing the T2200S forms, the University is only certifying that employees worked at home for a period of time during 2022, during which they may have been required to pay for home office expenses directly relating to their employment duties at the University of Windsor. It will be the employee’s responsibility to self-determine which, if any, of the options for claiming employment expenses they should pursue, as well as the official details of their deductions.

Questions can be directed at payroll@uwindsor.ca or at your human resources representative.