For the 2020 year, many employees were required to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those employees generally had two deduction possibilities: using the flat method of claiming $2/day the individual worked from home, or doing a detailed calculation to claim the actual costs associated with working from home. While the first option was only a temporary relieving measure for the 2020 year, the Liberal election platform promised to extend access to this deduction for the 2021 and 2022 years.
In the summer of 2021, CRA started to review these claims. A tax journalist from the Financial post, was one of the individuals selected for review. He discussed his experiences in an August 5, 2021 article (What you need to know if the CRA reviews your home office expense claims, Jamie Golombek). The author had used the detailed method to claim actual workspace in home expenses and was asked to provide (among other items):