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My question is: Canadian-specific
QUESTION: Hi David, big fan of your show :)
This question is regarding how the zoning of a your place of
residence can effect your ability to write off your rent.
My landlord claims that because my studio unit (where i also
live) is zoned as C2 (commercial live/work), and because in the
developer's plan, the unit was designed to be 70% work and 30%
live, I get to write off 70% of my rent.
Now, I do very occasionally see clients in my studio and do some
late night work there. but for the most part, i work as a
contractor in my main client's office building almost 40 hrs a
week. Would I be correct in assuming that, at the end of the day,
revenue Canada won't care a bit about how my studio is zoned, but
only how much i can prove that I utilize it for work?
Thanks for answering my questions!
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This question was left at:
http://www2.jurock.com/askexpert/ask.asp?aid=121&cid=63
David Ingram replies:
To be deductible, the office must be your principal place of work
and you must see clients on a regular basis.
Deductibility has NOTHING to do with zoning.
However, it would seem that your main client would not like your
doing work for other clients on his or her or its premises and
that you NEED an office to look after other clients.
Next, to be deductible, an office needs to be clearly delineated.
An artists studio where 50 or even 70% of it is clearly set up as
a set with drapes and easels and other paraphernalia might
qualify for the deduction and I have deducted one such site at
80% by square feet where the artist had a couch bed in an
upstairs loft and the entire main floor was a studio. (It also
helped that he rarely slept there but spent most of his evenings
at his lady friend's place - As a further aside, they are now
married and living happily ever after).
Computer types have a very difficult time with an office in a
studio apartment however. My own living - dining room has two
compete computer systems in it and it is not unusual for my wife
and I or my daughter and wife or my son and daughter or my
daughter and I to be working on two different computers in the
living room -dining room while watching television or just
visiting. The "office area" is clearly a dual status area and
not deductible because it is not a dedicated area.
Hope this helps...
david ingram
david ingram - [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
108-100 Park Royal South
West Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V7T 1A2
(604) 913-9133 - (604) 913-9123 www.centa.com
<http://www.centa.com>
Cell is (604) 657-8451 (10 AM to 10 PM seven days a week)
US / CANADA / MEXICO
Working Visa and Income Tax Specialists
Be ALERT, the world needs more "lerts"
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