30 June 1993 External T.I. 9307505 F - Substitute Teachers and Travelling

Please note that the following document, although believed to be correct at the time of issue, may not represent the current position of the CRA.
Prenez note que ce document, bien qu'exact au moment émis, peut ne pas représenter la position actuelle de l'ARC.

XXXXXXXXXX

Attention:  XXXXXXXXXX

Dear Sirs:

RE:  Occasional School Teachers

This is in reply to your of March 10, 1993 concerning whether occasional school teachers are entitled to deduct the costs of travelling to and from schools. We also acknowledge our telephone conversation on March 19, 1993 (Eisner/XXXXXXXXXX) in which we obtained clarification of the situation set out in your letter. We apologize for the delay in responding.

The function of an occasional teacher is to provide teaching instruction to students when a regular full-time teacher is absent for various reasons (e.g., illness, attend a funeral, etc.). In some cases, an occasional teacher may be engaged to teach for a period of time such as a week when it is known that the full-time teacher will be absent for that period of time. In most instances, however, an occasional school teacher does not know the school at which he or she will be requested to teach until the dispatcher telephones between 7:00 A.M. - 9:00 A.M. in the morning to ask if the occasional teacher will teach that day. The occasional teacher may accept or refuse a teaching engagement.

In connection with the above circumstances, you have indicated that the school board does not pay any transportation costs to the occasional teacher and public transportation is generally unavailable. Accordingly, if the occasional teacher does not have other means of travelling to and from the school, he or she would not be in a position to accept a teaching engagement. You have, therefore, asked us whether it would be appropriate for form T2200 to be prepared so that an occasional teacher could claim travel costs in travelling to and from schools as a result of using his or her own vehicle or a leased vehicle.

Our Comments:

In order for motor vehicle expenses of an employee (other than a sales person) to qualify for deduction from income, the following requirements must be satisfied:

(i)     the employee was ordinarily required to carry on the duties of employment away from the employer's place of business or in different places,

(ii)     under the contract of employment, the employee was required to pay the motor vehicle expenses incurred in the performance of the duties of employment, and

(iii)     the employee did not receive an allowance in respect of motor vehicle expenses that was excluded from income.

We also wish to note that where the above requirements are satisfied, an employee is still only entitled to deduct motor vehicle expenses for travelling in the course of employment.

In relation to the comments set out above, it is our understanding that an occasional teacher is hired by the school board with respect to each particular teaching engagement which is usually for a period of time of one day or less. In these circumstances, the employer's place of business must be determined in relation to each teaching engagement and that, in this regard, it is considered to be the school at which the occasional teacher teaches. On the basis that the occasional teacher would carry out all of his or her employment duties with respect to an engagement at one school, the requirement in (i) above would not be satisfied.

As a further comment in respect of (i) above, we are mentioning that the phrase "in different places" is not considered to be relevant to a situation where, during a period of employment, an individual carries out his or her employment duties at one location.

In addition, an individual, as indicated above, is only entitled to deduct expenses for travelling in the course of employment. In relation to such expenses, we consider the expenses incurred in travelling between an occasional teacher's home and a school and vice versa would be in the nature of personal travel with the result that they would not be regarded as having been incurred for travelling in the course of employment. It would also follow that, with respect to (ii) above, that the expenses in question would not have been incurred by an occasional teacher in the performance of his or her employment duties.

As a consequence of the above comments, an occasional teacher would not be entitled to deduct the expenses of travelling between a school and his or her home. Accordingly, a form T2200 should not be prepared with respect to an occasional teacher assuming that the only expenses involved are those which you have referred to in your letter.

While we regret that we could not give you a favourable response, we trust that the foregoing comments will be of assistance to you.

Yours truly,

P. D. Fuoco Personal and General SectionBusiness and General DivisionRulings DirectorateLegislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Branch