Question

During the year, Ms. Fata McSolty accepted a promotion with her employer, one of the largest Canadian banks, and had to move from Edmonton to Vancouver. Due to the market conditions in Edmonton, Ms. McSolty had to sell her old residence quickly and suffered a loss of $50,000. Her employer accepted to reimburse her half of her loss, that is, $25,000. With respect to the taxation of the amount of $25,000 received during the year, which of the following statements is correct? a. None of the answers shown. b. Only $5,000 of the $25,000 received would be included in the employee's income for the year because the amount is a reimbursement of an eligible housing loss by an employer to an employee. c. Only $12,500 of the $25,000 received would be included in the employee's income for the year, representing half of the amount received, because the amount is a reimbursement of a capital loss on the disposition of a personal asset, only half of which would be allowed as a deduction against taxable capital gains. d. None of the amount received is taxable for the employee because the amount received in this case is a reimbursement of expenses by an employer to an employee, and there are no other tax consequences for the employee. e. None of the amount received is taxable for the employee because the amount received is not part of the employee's regular salary and the payment is a one-off situation that will likely never occur again. f. The entire amount of $25,000 received is taxable because all amounts paid by an employer to an employee for housing losses are taxable and must be included in income of the employee.

Answer 1

f. The entire amount of $25,000 received is taxable because all amounts paid by an employer to an employee for housing losses are taxable and must be included in income of the employee.

This is because Ms Fata has already declared a loss of $50,000 on sale of her old residence and any amount received as a reimbursement of this loss should be shown as an income.