Business-Use-of-Home Calculator
Estimate your CRA home-office deduction as a self-employed Canadian.
Use the same unit for both — square feet or square metres. It's the ratio that matters.
Eligible costs include heat, electricity, insurance, maintenance, property tax, mortgage interest, rent, and capital cost allowance.
Estimate only, based on the CRA business-use-of-home method. If your workspace is also used personally, you must further reduce the claim by the hours it's used for business. Check with your accountant or the CRA.
Keep the receipts that back it up
Your business-use-of-home claim is only as good as the bills behind it. SparkReceipt's expense tracker scans and categorizes your utility, insurance, and maintenance receipts automatically — so the numbers you enter here are supported when the CRA asks.
How the CRA Method Works
Business-use percentage times eligible costs
Unlike some countries, Canada has no flat-rate home-office method for the self-employed. You work out the deduction from two things:
- Your business-use percentage — the area of your workspace divided by the total area of your home. If your office is 150 sq ft in a 1,500 sq ft home, that's 10%.
- Your eligible home costs — heat, electricity, insurance, maintenance, property tax, mortgage interest, rent, and capital cost allowance.
Multiply the two and you have your deduction. If the workspace is also used personally (a dining table that doubles as a desk), you reduce the claim further by the hours it's actually used for business.
The Net-Income Limit
It can't create a loss
Business-use-of-home expenses can't be used to create or increase a business loss. Your deduction is capped at your net business income before the claim — and any amount you can't use this year carries forward to a future year, when your income may be higher.
The calculator applies this cap if you enter your net income. Our guide to home-office expenses in Canada covers which costs qualify and how the carryforward works. Keeping every household bill in one place is what makes the whole claim defensible at tax time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Divide your workspace area by the total area of your home to get your business-use percentage, then multiply that by your eligible home costs — heat, electricity, insurance, maintenance, property tax, mortgage interest, rent, and capital cost allowance. That's your deduction, subject to the net-income limit.
No. The temporary $2-per-day flat rate was for employees only and applied to 2020–2022. Self-employed people use the detailed method: business-use percentage times eligible home costs, reported in Part 7 of Form T2125.
You can deduct the business-use portion of heat, electricity, home insurance, maintenance and cleaning, property tax, mortgage interest, rent, and capital cost allowance. You claim the interest on your mortgage, not the principal.
Business-use-of-home expenses can't create or increase a business loss. Your deduction is limited to your net business income before the claim. Any unused amount carries forward to future years — it isn't lost.
If the space isn't used only for business — for example, a room that's also part of your living space — you reduce the claim by the proportion of time it's used for business. A dedicated office used only for work is claimed on the area ratio alone.
Keep the bills behind the costs you're claiming — utilities, insurance, property tax, mortgage statements, rent — and a reasonable basis for your workspace measurement. SparkReceipt scans and categorizes those receipts automatically so the evidence is organized when you file.