In Australia employees who work from home can either calculate all your actual work from home expenses and deduct that, or use the standard fixed rate (which varies by year, but last financial year was 70 c per hour) which includes utilities and stationary/consumables. With the fixed rate you can still additionally deduct depreciating assets like computers and furniture (proportional to how often they are actually used for work).
If you work from home in the US you can deduct for a dedicated home office. I did it but it didn’t save me a penny tax wise. Not sure if my office is to small or my income to low.
The problem is that in the US, most tax deductions are concurrent with the standard deduction. So even if (for example) you donate $10k to a charity, the fact that it’s tax deductible is meaningless unless your total deductions are more than $16,100 (or more if married or head of household). It’s yet another way that tax deductions favor the rich - past a certain tax bracket, it makes sense to donate to a charity (that you control) to lower your taxes; for random Joe Peasant, it’s completely pointless.
Can you not do that as an employee in Canada?
In Australia employees who work from home can either calculate all your actual work from home expenses and deduct that, or use the standard fixed rate (which varies by year, but last financial year was 70 c per hour) which includes utilities and stationary/consumables. With the fixed rate you can still additionally deduct depreciating assets like computers and furniture (proportional to how often they are actually used for work).
If you work from home in the US you can deduct for a dedicated home office. I did it but it didn’t save me a penny tax wise. Not sure if my office is to small or my income to low.
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/simplified-option-for-home-office-deduction
The problem is that in the US, most tax deductions are concurrent with the standard deduction. So even if (for example) you donate $10k to a charity, the fact that it’s tax deductible is meaningless unless your total deductions are more than $16,100 (or more if married or head of household). It’s yet another way that tax deductions favor the rich - past a certain tax bracket, it makes sense to donate to a charity (that you control) to lower your taxes; for random Joe Peasant, it’s completely pointless.
tbh I’m not sure, I’ve never attempted it in Canada. Works that way in the US.
I believe you can deduct up to 30% of your rental costs, depending on square footage dedicated to office space in Canada.