Updated Checked by the Tax-Services.ca editorial team How we check
There’s no tax called “office tax” in Canada, so we’ve taken the search to mean the deduction for an office at home. If your employer requires you to work from home, you can claim a share of your rent and utilities, and on $70,000 of Ontario pay a $1,300 claim saves about $385 in tax. The claim needs a signed form from your employer and honest records.
Who can claim office costs as an employee?
The CRA sets conditions, and you need all of them. Your employer must have required you to work from home (a formal telework arrangement counts, even if you agreed to it). You paid the expenses yourself. You worked more than 50% of the time from your home work space for at least four consecutive weeks, or you use the space only for work and meet clients or customers there in person. And your employer signs Form T2200, the declaration of conditions of employment.
The temporary $2-a-day flat rate ended after 2022. For 2023 and later years the CRA says you must use the detailed method, meaning actual costs, backed by documents.
What can you claim, and what can’t you?
Salaried and commission employees can both claim some things, and commission employees a little more.
| Cost | Salaried | Commission |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity, heat, water | Yes | Yes |
| Home internet access | Yes | Yes |
| Rent (if you rent) | Yes | Yes |
| Maintenance and minor repairs | Yes | Yes |
| Home insurance and property taxes | No | Yes |
| Mortgage interest, furniture, computer, software | No | No |
Owners take note. The CRA says you can’t claim the rental value of your own work space, so a homeowner on salary is left with utilities, internet and small repairs. Renters get more.
How big is your office share?
You work out the share of your home that’s your work space. Divide the work space area by the finished area of the home and multiply by 100. The CRA’s own example is a 20 square metre room in a 200 square metre home, which gives 10%.
If the space is shared, say a dining table, you scale it by the hours you use it, out of 168 hours in a week. A 12% dining room used 40 hours a week works out to 12% of 23.8%, or about 2.9%. That’s a much smaller claim than most people expect.
Think of Jordan in Winnipeg, who works at the kitchen counter and clears it for supper. The shared-space method, with its hours out of 168, is the one that fits a space like that, and the claim is small. A spare bedroom used only for work is the simpler case.
What does an office claim save you?
Assume a renter pays $13,000 a year in rent, utilities and internet, and the office is 10% of the home. The claim is $1,300. On $70,000 of Ontario employment income, the income tax calculator data gives $11,134 of tax without it and $10,748 with it, a saving of $385.
So the claim is worth about 30 cents on the dollar at that income. It won’t change your CPP or EI, which come from your pay. To see what each extra deduction is worth at your own income, use the marginal tax rate calculator, and the tax refund calculator shows how the claim moves a refund. One quirk: the marginal calculator reads very high around $200,000 in Ontario because the Ontario Health Premium steps up there, so don’t read it as your everyday rate.
Is it worth the paperwork? For a few hundred bucks, usually yes, once you’ve got the T2200 and a folder of bills. It’s the same folder you’d keep anyway.
What if you run your own business?
Self-employed people have a different set of rules. You can deduct the business use of your home if the space is your principal place of business, or if you use it only to earn business income and meet clients there on a regular basis. Costs like heat, insurance and electricity count, and so do part of your property taxes. The CRA also lists mortgage interest and capital cost allowance for business use, so read its page for the limits before you claim them.
The deduction can’t be bigger than your business income for the year. Run the numbers in the self-employed tax calculator. It counts deductions against income tax only and leaves out EI, so treat the result as an estimate.
How do you get a T2200, and what do you keep?
Ask your employer or HR before you file. They complete and sign it, and you don’t send it in with your return. Keep it, with your bills and rent receipts, in case the CRA asks to see them. Most people find it easiest to ask early in the year, when no one’s rushing.
Where do people trip up?
Claiming without a T2200 is the big one. Your employer has to sign it, and asking after the fact is awkward, so ask early.
Claiming reimbursed costs is another. If your employer paid you back, you can’t claim that part. Your total claim also can’t exceed the employment income it relates to, though the CRA allows unused amounts to carry forward.
And don’t count the whole home. Only the work space counts.
Our sources
The conditions, the expense lists, the space formula and the 2023 change come from Canada Revenue Agency pages on home office expenses for employees and business-use-of-home expenses, read in September 2026. The tax figures use this site’s 2026 federal and Ontario data. We’re an independent site, and no government body is behind it.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a tax called office tax in Canada?
Not that we found. Most people searching this mean the deduction for a home office, which we've covered here.
Can I claim the $2-a-day flat rate this year?
No. The CRA says the temporary flat rate does not apply to 2023 and later tax years, so you use the detailed method.
Do I need Form T2200?
Yes, as an employee. Your employer signs it to declare that you were required to work from home.
Can I claim my mortgage interest?
Not as an employee. The CRA lists mortgage interest and principal payments as not claimable for employees.
How is my work space share worked out?
Divide the work space area by the finished area of your home. Shared areas are scaled by the hours you use them out of 168 a week.
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