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.
Principal Issues: Deductibility of travel expenses for construction workers who travel from home to one or more construction sites that are their regular places of employment.
Position: Not deductible.
Reasons: Travel is personal.
February 14, 2006
XXXXXXXXXX
Dear XXXXXXXXXX:
The Honourable Carol Skelton, Minister of National Revenue, has asked me to reply to your letter of October 20, 2005, addressed to the Honourable Ralph E. Goodale, former Minister of Finance, regarding the deduction of travel expenses for construction workers. Mr. Goodale's office forwarded a copy of your correspondence to the office of Minister Skelton's predecessor, the Honourable John McCallum, on January 12, 2006.
In your letter, you question whether the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is correct in its determination that travel between the homes of construction workers and the locations where they are required to work in the course of a year is personal in nature.
The determination of whether such travel is personal can only be made after a review of all the facts of each individual case. The CRA's general position is that travel between an employee's home and his or her regular place of employment is personal. For this purpose, any location at or from which the employee regularly reports for work or performs the duties of employment is considered a regular place of employment. Further, an employee can have more than one regular place of employment in the course of a year. Consequently, any employer-provided assistance related to such travel will give rise to a taxable benefit. Employees who are responsible for their own travel expenses will not be entitled to deduct the expenses related to that travel when computing employment income.
The CRA is committed to consistently and fairly applying the tax legislation and has a mandate to treat all taxpayers equally. Given that the determination described above is very taxpayer-specific, if any of your members have a situation that they would like the CRA to review, I would ask that they contact their local tax services office.
I trust this is satisfactory.
Yours sincerely,
Ed Gauthier
Deputy Assistant Commissioner
Tax and Regulatory Affairs
Legislative Policy and Regulatory
Affairs Branch
c.c.: Minister's Office
Political Assistant
Randy Hewlett
613-957-2049
January 30, 2006
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