Total Employment Use Amount Calculation Not Including Hours Worked

[GregJAnthony]

Greetings,

I am attempting to complete the Statement of Employment Expenses, Calculation of work-space-in-the-home expenses. My concern is regarding the automatic calculation of line 48.

There is a very clear example showing that, for line 48, Total Employment-Use amount, you must calculate the percentage of hours in a week during which the home is used for work, and multiply that by the percentage of square footage of the home which is used for work. (The example reads that if you use 12% of your home for work, and work for 23.8% of the hours in a week, then your total employment-use amount is 12% * 23.8% = 2.86%). 

However, the Turbotax automatic calculation is simply entering the percentage of square footage of the home used for work (in the example that would be 12%).

Is the automatic calculation incomplete or am I not understanding the total employment-use amount correctly? I could override this number, but then the software warns NetFile will no longer file my return for me.

Thanks for clarifying!

[JoanneLH]

The calculation of work-space-in-the-house expense is based on the workspace ratio when you indicate you have a dedicated workspace, and will consider hours worked when you work in a shared space.

You will indicate which situation applies to you at the top of the section titled "Line 16 - Calculation of work-space-in-the-house expense", and Turbotax will automatically calculate the employment-use amount based on this selection, the area details and hours worked, as well as the expenses entered.

Here is a link to the CRA's information regarding this calculation and how to determine your workspace situation, How the claim is calculated - Home office expenses for employees - Canada.ca