Fall Economic Statement 2020—Income Tax Measures

Simplifying the Home Office Expense Deduction for Employees

The federal government promises to simplify the process of claiming a deduction for home office expenses for employees. The CRA will allow employees who worked from home in 2020 due to COVID-19 to claim expenses of up to $400. This will be based on the amount of time working from home, without the need to track detailed expenses. CRA will generally not request that employees provide a signed form from their employers.

Taxing Unproductive Use of Canadian Housing by Foreign Non-Resident Owners

The government plans to target speculative demand for housing from foreign, non-resident investors. The government intends to take steps over the coming year to implement a national, tax-based measure targeting the unproductive use of domestic housing that is owned by non-resident, non-Canadians, which removes these assets from the domestic housing supply.

Canada Child Benefit

To provide immediate support for families with young children, the government proposes to boost the Canada Child Benefit (“CCB”) in 2021. This will provide an additional four CCB payments:

$300 per child under the age of six to families entitled to the CCB with family net income equal to or less than $120,000, and
$150 per child under the age of six to families entitled to the CCB with family net income above $120,000.

RDSPs—Cessation of Eligibility for the Disability Tax Credit

Budget 2019 proposed changes to the Registered Disability Savings Plan (“RDSP”) regime for beneficiaries with episodic disabilities. These proposed changes include removing the time limitation on the period for which an RDSP may remain open after a beneficiary becomes ineligible for the disability tax credit (“DTC”) and further, modifying repayment obligations. Budget 2019 proposed that these changes would apply as of January 1, 2021. It also proposed that until the coming-into-force date of the measure, RDSP issuers would not be required to close an RDSP solely because the beneficiary is no longer eligible for the DTC.