If the distance between your old home and your new workplace or educational institution is less than 40 kilometers, you cannot deduct your moving expenses.
Meanwhile, The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) does not accept air travel expenses for moving purposes.
You can claim eligible moving expenses if one of the following applies:
You moved to a new home to work or run a business from a new location.
You moved to be a full-time student in a post-secondary program at a university, college, or other educational institution.
To qualify, your new home must be at least 40 kilometers closer (by the shortest public route) to your new work location 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, including amounts you received under the Wage Earner Protection Program. However, you cannot deduct moving expenses from other types of income, such as investment income or employment insurance benefits, even if you received this income at the new location.
Full-time students can claim eligible moving expenses if they moved to be a full-time student in a post-secondary program. However, these expenses can only be deducted from the parts of their scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, certain prizes, and research grants that are required to be included in their income. They can also claim moving expenses if they moved to work, including summer employment, or to run a business. However, these expenses can only be deducted from the employment or self-employment income they earned at the new work location.
You can claim most amounts that you paid for moving yourself, your family, and your household items. Transportation and storage costs, as well as travel expenses (including vehicle expenses, meals, and accommodation), can be claimed. There are detailed and simplified methods for calculating meal and vehicle expenses.
The detailed method requires you to keep all receipts and claim the actual amount spent on meals and vehicle expenses. The simplified method allows you to claim a flat rate per person for meals. The CRA may still ask you to send documents to support your claim. You must also keep track of the number of kilometers driven during the tax year for trips related to your moving expenses.
Your net eligible income (line 28)
For employees, this is calculated by subtracting any amounts related to the new work location claimed on specific lines of your return from the amounts reported on your T4 or T4A slips (relating to the new work location) included on lines 10100 or 10400.
For self-employed individuals, this is usually calculated by subtracting any related amounts claimed on specific lines of your return from the net amounts earned at the new work location included on lines 13500, 13700, 13900, 14100, and 14300.
For students, this is calculated by considering the amounts of scholarships, bursaries, fellowships, research grants, or certain prizes required to be included in your income for the year.
Unused moving expenses available to carry forward to a future year (line 30)
If your net moving expenses (line 26) paid in the year of the move exceed your net eligible income (line 28) earned at the new work location in that same year, you can carry forward and deduct the unused part of those expenses from the employment or self-employment income you earn at the new work location in a future year.
If you are a full-time student and your net moving expenses (line 26) paid in the year of the move exceed the scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, certain prizes, and research grants income you report for the year (line 28), 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 in a future year.
Ineligible moving expenses
Expenses that cannot be claimed include those for work done to make your old home 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, expenses to clean or repair a rented home to meet the landlord's standards, expenses to replace personal-use items, mail-forwarding costs, costs of transformers or adaptors for household appliances, costs incurred in the sale of your old home if you delayed selling for investment purposes, and mortgage default insurance.
Generally, the cost of moving a mobile home cannot be deducted. However, if you have personal items in a mobile home when it is moved, you can deduct the cost of moving the home as long as it is not more than the estimated cost of moving those personal items separately.
If you moved to, from, or between locations outside Canada
Specific conditions and requirements apply for claiming moving expenses depending on your residency status and the locations involved.
Your Net Moving Expenses are calculated by subtracting any reimbursement from your total moving expenses. If your Net Moving Expenses are less than your net eligible income from the past year, you can claim the difference in your moving expenses. If your Net Moving Expenses exceed your net eligible income from the past year, you can carry over the difference to future years.