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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, M ar ch 18 ,2 02 1 | 26 SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST DIRECTORY If you'd like to advertise your place of worship in this featureplease email Fionafrudder@starmetrolandmedia.comWorship PENTECOSTAL UNITED 1469 Nottinghill Gate, Oakville 905-825-5292 www.glenabbeyunitedchurch.com GLEN ABBEY UNITED CHURCH REV. TED VANCE In times like these, a Church service can help provide some normalcy and hope! and search Glen Abbey United Church OR Click on www.glenabbeyunitedchurch.com To help your Church survive the pandemic, please send e-transfers to: donations@glenabbeyunitedchurch.com Thank you and God Bless you! In keeping with health recommendations, we are pausing in-person services. FOR ONLINE CHURCH SERVICE available anytime GO TOYOUTUBE.COM This Sunday, March 21st Message: Hidden Changes Oakville Seventh-day adventiSt ChurCh tel: 289-830-6717 Mark ewen (Senior Pastor) Carl Cunningham (associate Pastor) dean lashington (lead elder) Twitter: @Oakvillesda Email: oakvillechurchsda@gmail.com Saturday (Sabbath) Worship Service: 10am-1pm Wednesday Evening Service: 6:30pm-7:30pm Thursday Evening Service: 6:30pm-7:30pm Zoom id 867 6764 2331 Password: worship revival Series Theme: We Press On March 6, 13, 20 & 27 Tel: 416-892-8123 Fax: 1-866-281-5983 Bishop M. Brissett (Pastor) Email: mjbrisse@yahoo.ca Jesus is lOrd Oakville PenTecOsTal aPOsTOlic cenTre 454 Rebecca St (St. Paul's United Church) Oakville, ON Sunday Service 12:30 - 3PMWorship Service Sunday Evening: 7:30-9PM (Via Zoom Virtual Platform) *Covid-19 Safety Protocols Strictly followed.* It's tax time. After a year that saw record numbers of Ontarians working from home, this tax season will be like no other. Whether you spent nine months in 2020 tracking your home office expenses or you let the bookkeeping slide, if you've been work- ing from home, you could be entitled to a tax break this year. People who work from home for reasons not relat- ed to COVID-19 can also claim home office expens- es, but this guide will focus on pandemic-related claims. There are two methods that eligible taxpayers can use to claim work-from- home tax deductions this year, said Rachel Gervais, an accountant and tax ser- vices branch leader with BDO Canada. There's the traditional method, which involves tracking all home office-re- lated expenses and filing a Declaration of Conditions of Employment form, and then there's a new simpli- fied method, which in- volves less legwork and of- fers a flat rate refund of up to $400. "It makes it a lot easier for employees to get a small claim," Gervais said of the simplified method. "It's re- ally meant to help alleviate the fact that there were so many taxpayers working from home that maybe didn't know they needed to keep receipts and didn't un- derstand how the more complicated system worked." Anyone who was asked or given the choice by their employer to work from home in 2020 can claim home office expenses, as long as they worked from home more than 50 per cent of the time during a period of at least four consecutive weeks. The traditional way Using the traditional method, employees can claim a portion of utilities like heat, hydro, home pay- ments, internet and phone service for the duration of the time they worked from home based on how much space their designated work area occupies. The amount a person can claim for utilities like heat, hydro and home pay- ments is calculated using this formula: take the square footage of the desig- nated work area and divide it by the square footage of the entire home. Whatever percentage you end up with is the percentage of each bill you can claim. The calculation for in- ternet and phone bills is based on the percentage of time those utilities are used for work versus home. For this method, em- ployers will need to sign a T2200 form -- or a T2200S form, depending on the types of expenses being claimed -- asserting that the employee was required to maintain a workspace at their home. This method is best for people who know it will yield them a refund higher than $400 based on the cal- culations above. For exam- ple, someone who spends a lot on rent relative to the size of their home might want to use this option. "If you rent property rather than owning your property, the detailed method could actually end up being quite beneficial for you," Gervais said. The simplified way The simplified method offers a flat rate of $2 per day for each day the em- ployee worked from home in 2020 due to COVID-19. It can yield up to $400 for any- one who worked 200 days at home in 2020, not including sick days, vacation days or days off. Because an employee doesn't need to have tracked expenses or file a T2200 or T2200S form to use this method, Gervais said it works well for anyone over- whelmed by the traditional option. "Employees who weren't tracking their expenses or didn't know they needed to, or who didn't keep receipts, would probably be driven to use the more simplified version," she said. HERE'S HOW TO CLAIM YOUR HOME OFFICE WITH YOUR TAXES MEGAN DELAIRE mdelaire@toronto.com NEWS TAXPAYERS COULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN REFUNDS "Employees who weren't tracking their expenses or didn't know they needed to, or who didn't keep receipts, would probably be driven to use the more simplified version." - accountant Rachel Gervais