Employment travel expense tax deduction

Question

I am currently located in Ontario, Canada. I work full time as a security guard and am required to regularly secure a client's building. According to the Canadian Revenue Agency link here, anyone meeting the following criteria can claim traveling expenses:

• You were normally required to work away from your employer's place of business or in different places.
• Under your contract of employment, you had to pay your own travelling expenses.
• You did not receive a non-taxable allowance for travelling expenses. Generally, an allowance is non-taxable as long as it is a reasonable amount. You keep with your records a copy of Form T2200, Declaration of Conditions of Employment, which has been completed and signed by your employer.

In my opinion practically all security guards meet the criteria stated above, so I was wondering :

• Why has no one told me about this deduction?
• Am I eligible for this deduction?
• Should I be keeping the receipts of my public transit passes?

Answer 1

In this context, the client's building is your employer's "place of business". If you have a regular work location, you can't claim travel expenses to that location. If you are assigned guard duties in multiple locations during a single day, you can claim travel expenses for the additional locations (but not the first). If you are assigned duties at a location significantly far from your normal location, then you may be able to claim travel expenses for that. But simply working at a location other than your employer's office is not sufficient. Contractors can't claim transportation expenses simply because they are working at a location other than the contractor agency's building.