T2200 and Home Office Expenses Information

Last updated: April 18, 2024

Employees who work from home may be eligible to deduct home office expenses on their income tax filing. Refer to the CRA T2200 Form Eligibility for detailed guidance to confirm eligibility and what types of expenses can be claimed.

The University of Calgary recommends employees seek professional tax advice before applying for home office expense deductions on their personal tax returns.

T2200 Eligibility

For the past three years employees who were required to work from home due to COVID-19 have been able to deduct their eligible home office expenses on their personal tax returns using the temporary flat rate or detailed method. The temporary flat rate program was ended by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) as of December 31, 2022. 

To be eligible to have a T2200 form completed, the employee must be required to work from home. For 2023, if the employee voluntarily entered into a formal Hybrid Work Agreement with the university, then the employee is considered to have been required to work from home.  For clarity, this applies to those university employees that are eligible to participate in the formal university Hybrid Work Program and had an approved Hybrid Work Agreement in place in 2023.  This also applies to employees who are working from home as a result of an approved accommodation.  

In addition, employees must meet one of the following conditions:

• The designated home workspace is where the employee mainly does their work (more than 50% of the time) for a period of at least 4 consecutive weeks in a year.
• The employee used the designated home workspace only to earn employment income. The employee used it on a regular and continuous basis for meeting clients, customers, or other people in the course of employment duties (will not apply to most university roles).

With respect to the University of Calgary, employees may only claim home office expenses on their personal income tax return for employment purposes if they have been issued a T2200 by the university. 

If you feel that your situation meets all of the criteria above, you may request a T2200.

How to request a T2200

Employee Steps:

1. Complete the T2200 Form Checklist and the T2200 Declaration of Conditions of Employment Form.  A sample completed T2200 Form has been provided in the Guidance for Form T2200.
2. Send your manager a request for a T2200 by email with both documents (point 1) attached to your request. 

Manager Steps:

1. Review both documents with the employee, and at your discretion, based on the employee’s conditions of employment and signed T2200 Form Checklist, either approve or decline the employee’s T2200 request. You are not required to verify the accuracy of the expense information the employee has declared on the T2200 Form if it is accompanied by a completed T2200 Form Checklist. 
2. If you approve the employee’s request: 
   • Email the completed and signed T2200 Form and signed T2200 Form Checklist to the employee with a copy to UService for audit purposes at hr@ucalgary.ca with the subject line “T2200 - Manager Authorization”. 
   • The manager is not required to keep a copy of the completed T2200 form.  The employee is required to keep a copy for their records. 
3. If you deny the employee’s request: 
   • Reply to the employee’s request by email with your decision and rationale and with a copy to Uservice at hr@ucalgary.ca with the subject line “T2200 – Manager Denial”.  In these instances, the employee will not be issued a T2200 form.