Federal Employee Benefits Included $400 – $500 Home Office Tax Credit: CRA
According to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), about 250,000 federal government employees who worked from home were eligible for tax credits ranging from $400 to $500 each.
“In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has introduced the temporary lump sum method to simplify the calculation of home office costs when claiming the labor cost deduction,” the CRA wrote in a submission to the Commons Government Operations Committee, obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.
The flat-rate credit for “home office expenses” allowed federal employees to claim up to $400 on their 2020 tax returns, which was increased to $500 in subsequent years.
The CRA information came in response to a question from Conservative MP Kelly Block, who inquired: “Can you tell us what the implications are for the Treasury of all civil servants who work from home and are now eligible for home work deductions on their income tax ?”
The CRA has not provided the Treasury with a cost estimate. However, some 287,978 cabinet employees were ordered to work from home as a COVID precaution, according to Blacklock’s. As of June 10, 2022, the cabinet estimated that 240,000 employees were still working remotely, based on the number of federal servers logged in remotely.
The Treasury Board has said it does not keep statistics on how many employees are still working remotely from home. “The information is not systematically maintained,” the board wrote in a May 23 submission to the Senate National Finance Committee.
If all 240,000 employees benefited from the home office expense allowance, the cost to the government over two years would be $216 million.
The work-from-home program for federal employees also included a $36.3 million budget from Public Works Canada for chairs, desks, furniture and other equipment for civil servants to build home offices.
“The provision of this support will continue and be based on workers’ needs,” the cabinet stated in a 2021 ministry inquiry submitted to the House of Commons, Blacklock’s reported.
In a speech Jean-Yves Duclos, then president of the Treasury Board, told the government committee on May 8, 2020 that “federal employees remain productive in their efforts to provide Canadians with the government services they depend on,” regardless of where they work.
“While many officials have the necessary tools to do this, some require additional equipment, such as laptops, tablets and monitors, as well as specific accommodations to do their jobs.”
The Department of Agriculture spent $179,925 on headsets, while Indigenous Services spent $72,960 on laptops. Health Canada spent $30,744 on ergonomic chairs and Finance Canada spent $3,029 on “anti-fatigue mats.”
Earlier this year, on April 19, the largest union representing federal employees of the CRA and the Treasury Board Secretariat went on strike, citing among their demands the ability to maintain work-from-home arrangements.
In an agreement reached between the union and the government on May 1, civil servants were given new remote working rights introduced during the pandemic, including a grievance procedure.
