--- title: WRITE OFF YOUR CELL PHONE EXPENSES description: If you use your cell phone for business and personal calls you may have wondered how much of the cost you can deduct on your tax return each year. image: https://www.mclenehan.com/hubfs/Blog_feature_images/Cell_phone_expenses.jpg --- 1 min read # WRITE OFF YOUR CELL PHONE EXPENSES [ Mike McLenehan ](https://www.mclenehan.com/articles-and-advice/author/mike-mclenehan) Feb 12, 2016 2:37:28 PM ![WRITE OFF YOUR CELL PHONE EXPENSES](https://www.mclenehan.com/hubfs/Blog_feature_images/Cell_phone_expenses.jpg) --- Can you write off your cell phone expenses? If you use your cell phone for business and personal calls you may have wondered how much of the cost you can deduct on your tax return each year. *** *** ***Self-Employed Individuals*** Canada Revenue Agency indicates in [Guide T4002 Business and Professional Income 2015](https://www.mclenehan.com/hubfs/PDF_documents/T4002_Business_and_Professional_Income_2015.pdf?t=1455299028112) that “You can deduct expenses for telephone and utilities, such as gas, oil, electricity, and water, if you incurred the expenses to earn income.”   But you might ask “What if 100% of my cell phone expense was not incurred for earning business income? I use my cell phone personally as well.” Canada Revenue Agency’s [website](http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/pyrll/bnfts/prvdd/cll-eng.html) indicates that they do not consider your personal use of a cell phone service to be a taxable benefit to you if **all **of the following apply: - The plan’s cost is reasonable. - The plan is a basic plan with a fixed cost. - Your use of the service does not result in charges that are more than the basic plan cost. So your monthly cell phone charges are fully deductible so long as you subscribe to a fixed and reasonable cell phone plan and your personal use does not result in additional charges. If you do incur charges for personal-use then that incremental cost would not be a deductible expense for income tax purposes.   ***Employees*** If you are an employee of a business, for you to be eligible to deduct your cell phone expenses your employer needs to indicate that, as a condition of your employment, you are required to pay for the use of a cell phone on question 9 of form [T2200 Declaration of Conditions of Employment](https://www.mclenehan.com/hubfs/PDF_documents/T2200_Declaration_of_Conditions_of_Employment.pdf?t=1455299031318). If your employee pays you an allowance for your cell phone you must reduce your expense claim by the amount of the allowance when filing your personal income tax return.     ---     - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) [![Reduce your taxes by claiming home office expenses](https://www.mclenehan.com/hubfs/Blog_feature_images/Home_office.jpg) ](https://www.mclenehan.com/articles-and-advice/reduce-taxes-by-claiming-home-office-expenses) #### [Reduce your taxes by claiming home office expenses](https://www.mclenehan.com/articles-and-advice/reduce-taxes-by-claiming-home-office-expenses) [Mike McLenehan](https://www.mclenehan.com/articles-and-advice/author/mike-mclenehan) : Apr 20, 2020 1:00:00 PM Do you use a home office for earning employment or business income? Claiming home office expenses on your tax return is going to reduce your taxable... 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[Read More](https://www.mclenehan.com/articles-and-advice/six-reasons-to-switch-to-quickbooks-online) [![Two ways to write off your vehicle expenses](https://www.mclenehan.com/hubfs/Vehicle%20Expenses/Feature%20Image%20-%20Vehicle%20Expenses.png) ](https://www.mclenehan.com/articles-and-advice/two-ways-to-write-off-your-vehicle-expenses) #### [Two ways to write off your vehicle expenses](https://www.mclenehan.com/articles-and-advice/two-ways-to-write-off-your-vehicle-expenses) [Mike McLenehan](https://www.mclenehan.com/articles-and-advice/author/mike-mclenehan) : May 11, 2022 10:57:33 AM You can deduct your vehicle expenses if you normally work away from your place of business. There are two accepted methods for owners of... [Read More](https://www.mclenehan.com/articles-and-advice/two-ways-to-write-off-your-vehicle-expenses) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Mike McLenehan", "url" : "https://www.mclenehan.com/articles-and-advice/author/mike-mclenehan" }, "dateModified" : "2021-10-19T02:10:56.558Z", "datePublished" : "2016-02-12T20:37:28.000Z", "headline" : "WRITE OFF YOUR CELL PHONE EXPENSES", "image" : [ "https://www.mclenehan.com/hubfs/Blog_feature_images/Cell_phone_expenses.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.mclenehan.com/articles-and-advice/write-off-your-cell-phone-expenses", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://www.mclenehan.com/hubfs/1495469_Logo%20mark%20300x300px_140422.png" }, "name" : "McLenehan and Associates Chartered Professional Accountants Corporation" } } ```