Steve Carreiro, KPMG Enterprise
If you were self-employed this past year, now is a good time to start gathering your paperwork to file your 2013 tax return. And remember some of the expenses you incur for your home may be deductible from business income if you have an office or other work space there.
Your home office expenses may be deductible in two situations: First, if your home is your principal place of business — that is, you do not have an office elsewhere. Second, if you have an office outside your home, your home office must be used exclusively for your business, and must be used on a “regular and continuous basis” for meeting clients, customers or patients.
It’s not always clear how many meetings you need to have in your home office to meet the “regular and continuous” requirement, but it will depend on the nature of your business and your situation.
The Canada Revenue Agency provides an example of a doctor who has offices both outside and inside his home. He uses his home office to meet one or two patients a week. The CRA says this work space would not be considered used on a regular and continuous basis for meeting patients. However, a work space used to meet an average of five patients a day for five days each week clearly meets the requirements. This example clearly shows there is a large grey area in what the CRA considers to be regular and continuous.
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