CRA says you'd better be working from home to claim home-office expenses

financialpost.com:

If you’re an employee who’s in the process of preparing their 2023 tax return, you’ll no doubt soon come to realize that there’s not much tax planning we can do to reduce the tax payable on our employment income, all of which appears on a T4 slip.

But if you do incur various expenses for which you aren’t reimbursed by your employer, including expenses for a home office, you may be able to claim a deduction on your return for such expenses.

Typical deductible employment expenses (if unreimbursed) can include: certain food, beverage and entertainment expenses; out-of-town lodging; parking; office supplies; allowable motor vehicle expenses; and even advertising and promotion expenses. Of course, to be entitled to deduct employment expenses, an employee needs to obtain a copy of a properly completed and signed Form T2200, Declaration of Conditions of Employment from their employer.

A tax case decided in March involved the deductibility of employment expenses, specifically, those related to the use of a home office and a motor vehicle. The taxpayer was appealing reassessments of his 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 taxation years in which the Canada Revenue Agency reduced or denied certain expenses claimed in each of those years.

The taxpayer, a visiting registered nurse, was simultaneously employed by four separate employers in 2015 and three separate employers in 2016, 2017 and 2018. His job was to provide nursing services to individuals in their own homes, or in a retirement or nursing home. During the tax years under review, he provided nursing services six days one week and four days the next week on a rotating basis. Each week included two or three seven-hour night shifts during which he was on standby for patients who