[bobbinka]

Originally Posted by BIC_BAWS

It depends on where is your regular place of work. If every Monday, you are expected to go to Client A's house, it can be considered as regular place of work.

Take a look at this: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-age...sonal-use.html

You referenced employee benefits when the OP is not an employee. It talks about "regular place of employment" in the context of an employee. The title at the top of the page says "When does a benefit arise" (as in, taxable benefit for an employee).

Originally Posted by instantneedles

I don’t actually have an office and do all my paperwork out of home.

All of my travelling is to client’s houses which I was hoping to be able to get deductions for.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-age...ses.html#p2_11

2.4 Specifically, paragraph 18(12)(a) provides that in order to deduct expenses related to a work space, the work space must be:

the principal place of business of the individual (subparagraph 18(12)(a)(i)); or
used exclusively to earn business income and used on a regular and continuous basis for meeting clients, customers or patients of the individual in respect of the business (subparagraph 18(12)(a)(ii)).

Principal place of business
2.11 Where an individual has two or more places of business in respect of the same business, the work space must be the principal place of business in order to meet the requirement described in ¶2.4(a). The word principal is not defined in the Act but in this context is generally understood to refer to the individual’s chief or main place of business .

Example 1
Mr. A is a building contractor who uses a work space in his home to perform various administrative activities that are required in his business operations. These activities include receiving work orders, bookkeeping, ordering supplies and preparing payrolls. The remaining activities of the business, the performance of contracts, are carried out at various customer locations. The work space in Mr. A’s home therefore represents his main place of business. Mr. A’s children often use the work space in the evening to do their homework.

A work space need not be used exclusively for the business in order to meet the principal place of business requirement outlined in ¶2.4(a). This means that the room used by Mr. A in his home to perform the administrative functions of his business will be considered Mr. A’s principal place of business.

In light of the personal use of the space, Mr. A will, however, have to apportion his expenses as discussed beginning in ¶2.18.

Therefore, if it is your principal place of business, you may be entitled to business use of home deductions.

As for motor vehicle expenses, if you are a sole proprietor...

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-age...-5.html#tocch3

Line 9281 – Motor vehicle expenses (not including CCA)
You can deduct expenses you incur to run a motor vehicle you use to earn business or fishing income. Fill in "Chart A – Motor vehicle expenses" on your form. The chart will help you calculate the amount of motor vehicle expenses you can deduct. If you are a partner in a partnership and you incur motor vehicle expenses for the business through the use of your personal vehicle, you can claim those expenses related to the business on line 9943 in Part 5.

If you use your vehicle occasionally for business purposes, you can claim motor vehicle expenses on a per-trip basis. For example, taking the children to a park or on an excursion may involve paying for fuel and parking.

If you regularly use your vehicle for business and personal trips, you can claim part of the total operating expenses for your vehicle as a business expense. You must keep accurate records that show the part of the total kilometres that you drove for your business.

At the end of the day, there are many factors to consider in whether it is worth it to get an accountant. For example, what is the business? do you make 10k or 200k a year? How much expenses are there and what's the amount of work required to deal with it? What is your knowledge of tax matters and ability to understand it? Can you take the risk that you're doing it incorrectly and not knowing so? Or are you confident enough to accept a small margin of error? Only you can figure out where you're comfortable with.

My recommendation is to speak with people in your industry first. See how others do it and hear their experiences.

While having an accountant can be reassuring, you have to figure out if it's justified. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not.