Legal Fee Deductions

[severance_owed]

Please confirm legal expenses are deductible when claiming for owed salaries of a former company. 

Is there a limit to expenses deducted?  

What happens in a situation where the related lawyer expenses exceed the settlement dollars recovered?

[TurboTaxSusan]

Yes, you can claim legal fees if they were incurred to collect salary or wages from an employer. However, you can only deduct expenses up to the salary or wages that you received. So if your legal bills were higher than what you got as part of the legal process, then you’ll not be able to deduct the amount that went above.

If you’d like to confirm this with the CRA, you can them at 1-800-959-8281. Here are more ways to contact the CRA: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/corporate/contact-information/telephone-numbers.html