Moving Expenses Deduction

Who can claim moving expenses?

If you have moved and established a new home to work or to run a business at a new location, you can claim eligible moving expenses. You can also claim moving expenses if you moved to take courses as a student in full-time attendance enrolled in a post-secondary program at a university, college, or other educational institution.

To qualify, your new home must be at least 40 kilometres (by the shortest usual public route) closer to your new place of work or school.

If you are employed or self-employed, you can deduct eligible moving expenses from the employment or self-employment income you earned at your new work location. You cannot deduct your moving expenses from any other type of income, such as investment income or employment insurance benefits, even if you received this income at the new location.



You can claim eligible moving expenses if you moved to study courses as a student in full-time attendance enrolled in a post-secondary program at a university, college or other educational institution that offers courses at a post-secondary school level. However, you can only deduct these expenses from the part of your scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, certain prizes, and research grants that are required to be included in your income.

• If you moved to work, including summer employment, or to run a business, you can also claim moving expenses. However, you can only deduct these expenses from the employment or self-employment income you earned at the new work location.
• You can claim moving expenses you incur at the beginning of each academic period; as long as you meet the 40-kilometre requirement and you have earned income at your new work location. In the case of a co-operative student, when you move back after a summer break or a work semester, you can also claim your moving expenses, as long as you meet the previously stated requirements.

How to calculate your allowable moving expenses

You can claim reasonable amounts that you paid for moving yourself, your family, and your household effects. Not all members of your household have to travel together or at the same time.

Transportation and storage costs

You can claim transportation and storage costs (such as packing, hauling, movers, in-transit storage, and insurance) for household effects, including items such as boats and trailers.

Travel expenses
You can claim travel expenses, including vehicle expenses, meals, and accommodation, to move you and members of your household to your new residence. You can choose to claim vehicle and/or meal expenses using one of the following two methods of calculation described below.

Methods of calculation

There are two methods (detailed and simplified) to calculate the meal and vehicle expenses you spent.

If you choose to use the detailed method to calculate your meal expenses, you must keep all your receipts and claim the actual amount that you spent. Also, if you choose to use this method to calculate your vehicle expenses, you must keep all receipts and records for the vehicle expenses. Claim the actual amount that you spent in respect of your moving expenses during the tax year.

If you choose to use the simplified method to calculate your meal expenses, you may claim a flat rate per person. Although you do not need to keep detailed receipts for actual expenses, we may still ask you to provide some documentation to support your claim. Also, if you choose to use this method to calculate the amount to claim for vehicle expenses, multiply the number of kilometres by the cents/km rate for the province or territory in which the travel began. We may still ask you to provide some documentation to support your claim. You must keep track of the number of kilometres driven during the tax year for the trips related to your moving expenses.

Temporary living expenses



You can claim costs for a maximum of 15 days for meals and temporary accommodation near the old and the new residence for you and members of your household. If you choose to use the simplified method, we may still ask you to provide some documentation to establish the duration of the temporary lodging.

Cost of cancelling your lease

You can claim the cost of cancelling the lease for your old residence. However, you cannot claim rental payments for any period prior to the cancellation of your lease, whether or not you occupied the residence during this period.

Incidental costs related to your move

You can claim the cost of:

• changing your address on legal documents,
• replacing driving licences and non-commercial vehicle permits (not including insurance); and
• utility hook-ups and disconnections.

Cost to maintain the old residence when vacant

You can claim, to a maximum of $5,000, interest, property taxes, insurance premiums, and the cost of heating and utilities expenses you paid to maintain your old residence when it was vacant after you moved, and during a period when reasonable efforts were made to sell the home.

The costs must have been incurred when your old residence was not ordinarily occupied by you or any other person who ordinarily resided with you at the old residence just before the move. You cannot claim these costs during a period when the old residence was rented.

Cost of selling the old residence

You can claim the cost of selling your old residence, including advertising, notary or legal fees, real estate commission, and mortgage penalty when the mortgage is paid off before maturity.

Cost of purchasing the new residence

If you or your spouse or common-law partner sold your old residence as a result of your move, you can claim the legal or notary fees you paid for the purchase of your new residence, as well as any taxes paid (other than GST/HST or property taxes) for the transfer or registration of title to the new residence.

Reimbursement or allowance you received for your move

If you received a reimbursement or an allowance from your employer for your eligible moving expenses, you can only claim your moving expenses if you include the amount you received in your income or if you reduce your moving expenses by the amount received.

We may ask you to provide a letter from your employer stating that you were not reimbursed for the moving expenses you are claiming.

Expenses you paid in a year after you moved



If your moving expenses were paid in a year after the year of your move, you can claim them on your return for the year you paid them against employment or self-employment income earned at the new work location.

The same possibility is also extended to students reporting a taxable amount of scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, certain prizes, and research grants.

This may apply if your old residence did not sell until after the year of your move. If this is the case, Canada Revenue Agency may ask you to submit a prescribed form (T1-ME) with the receipts and explain the delay in selling your home.

However, you cannot carry back moving expenses to a previous year. For example, if you paid moving expenses in 2014 for a move that occurred in 2013, you cannot claim the expenses paid in 2014 on your 2013 return, even if you earned employment income, self-employment income, or received a taxable amount of scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, certain prizes, and research grants at the new location in 2013.

Your net eligible income

If you are an employee, your net eligible income is equal to the amounts reported on your T4 and/or T4A slips that relate to the new work location and that are included on lines 101 and/or 104, minus any amount relating to the new work location claimed on lines 207, 212, 229, 231, and 232 of your return.

If you are self-employed, your net eligible income is generally equal to the net amounts earned at the new work location that are included on lines 135 to 143, minus any amounts claimed on lines 212 and 222 of your return.

If you are a student, your net eligible income is equal to the amount of scholarship, bursaries, fellowships, research grants, and/or certain prizes required to be included in your income for the year.

Unused moving expenses available to carry forward to a future year

If you are an employee or self-employed and your net moving expenses that you paid in the year of the move are more than the net eligible income earned at the new work location in that same year, you can carry forward and deduct the unused part of those expenses from your employment or self-employment income you earn at the new work location and report on your return in the following years.

If you are a full time student and your net moving expenses that you paid in the year of the move are more than the scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, certain prizes, and research grants income you report for the year, you can carry forward and deduct the unused part of those expenses from the same type of income you receive and report on your return for the following years.

Ineligible moving expenses

Expenses you cannot claim include:

• expenses for work done to make your old residence more saleable;
• any loss from the sale of your home;
• travel expenses for house-hunting trips before you move;
• travel expenses for job hunting in another city;
• the value of items movers refused to take, such as plants, frozen food, ammunition, paint, and cleaning products;
• expenses to clean or repair a rented residence to meet the landlord’s standards;
• expenses to replace personal-use items such as toolsheds, firewood, drapes, and carpets;
• mail-forwarding costs (such as with Canada Post);
• costs of transformers or adaptors for household appliances;
• costs incurred in the sale of your old residence if you delayed selling for investment purposes or until the real estate market improved; and
• mortgage default insurance.

Generally, you cannot deduct the cost of moving a mobile home. However, if you have personal effects in a mobile home when it is moved, you can deduct the amount it would have cost to move those personal effects separately.