CRA finds that on-call maintenance staff who drove intraday in their employer’s pickup truck between home and the maintenance site received no taxable benefit

An employer with apartment buildings and townhouse complexes at various locations in the city expected its maintenance staff to return to their homes with the employer-provided and equipped pickup truck (which was not an “automobile” as defined in s. 248(1)) until their next maintenance call. CRA stated:

[I]t appears that the primary reason for employees returning home in between calls during a standby shift is due to [the employer’s] policy of not paying Staff for down time. … [I]t is likely that the employer is the primary beneficiary of an employee’s travel to and from home in between the first and last call out of a standby shift. As such, no taxable benefit should result from this travel.

CRA also indicated that a taxable (carpooling) benefit generally would occur where two staff were required for a call and the first picked up (or dropped off) the second at their home for the first (or last) call of the day, stating that “a reduction in the value of the travel benefit may be warranted based on loss of privacy or quiet enjoyment, additional travel time, etc.” and then stated (deadpan) that “Employees and employers should keep records on employee travel in support of the particular position taken.”

Neal Armstrong. Summary of 31 July 2019 External T.I. 2019-0798361E5 under s. 6(1)(a).