I worked in the US last year and received a daily stipend for meals, I was paid in canadian by my candian company. Can I deduct this as I was being asked to work abroad?

[daftbyrd]

Last year I was on contract for a short while to a company in america, but was paid by my Canadian company in Canadian dollars (Worker is paid by employer outside US : Visa B1 in lieu of an H1B http://www.workpermit.com/us/investor_b1_b2.htm).

But because I was asked to work away from my home, I was given 30$ a day to help me live and buy food since I did not have a kitchen proper. This seems to have put me in a higher tax bracket because now I owe money (this has never happened before). Is there a deduction for a (non transportation worker) stipend living abroad for work? None of this would apply to american taxes, I was never paid by an american company.

[Delphision · Accepted solution]

A couple of things can happen here:

If you were an employee of the Canadian company, and received a T4 with a taxable allowance, you report the allowance per the T4 and claim employee expenses for the actual cost of meals, accommodation, and travel.  You must have the company fill out a T2200 stating that these expenses were necessary for your employment, and state the amount of the allowance which is subtracted from the total of the claim.  You would fill out the expenses on the T777.  If your company is registered for GST, you would also be eligible to claim back the GST/HST paid if any.

If you were at a remote job site, the allowance and perhaps a portion of the income could be exempted from reporting as income.

If you were sent as a subcontractor, and the allowance added to your invoices for "living out allowance," you would report the income as self-employment income and deduct the meals, accommodation and travel as expenses. Meals are claimed at 50%.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/ddctns/lns206-236/229/slry/trvllng-eng.h...

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t2200/

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/td4/README.html

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/slprtnr/rprtng/t2125/ln9200-eng.html