As the pandemic continues, people across Ontario are wondering if they can take advantage of the new Staycation Tax Credit. Launched in March 2021, the tax credit is designed to provide a financial incentive to those who book staycations within Ontario for the year. But is booking through Expedia or Hotels.ca eligible for the tax credit? Did you claim this tax credit?
A very good question!!!
Eligible expenses
You can claim the Ontario Staycation Tax Credit for accommodation expenses for a leisure stay of less than a month
in Ontario, at a short-term accommodation or camping accommodation, such as a:
hotel
motel
resort
lodge
bed-and-breakfast establishment
cottage
campground
vacation rental property
The tax credit only applies to leisure stays between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022, regardless of the timing of payment for the stays.
The accommodation expenses must have been paid by you, your spouse or common-law partner, or your eligible child, as set out on a detailed receipt provided by a supplier registered for the Goods and Services Tax (GST)/Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).
Look carefully – by a supplier registered for the Goods and Services Tax (GST)/Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).
Did you check your hand-wrtiten receipt? Did it come with a nice HST/GST number? Likely not. But what about my booking with those big names?
The answer is , most likely, No or if you are lucky, then Yes. Please continue to read.
Some people booked their vacation time through Expedia or Hotels.com or even Airbnb. Sadly, some Airbnb receipts lack any tax details, even
though under the Canadian Fall Economic Statement 2020, Airbnb is legally required to charge GST, HST, and QST on bookings,
effective July 2021. For some people using hotels.com, it only provided the payment receipt instead of itemized receipts with HST registration
number.
What does it mean to you if you were in the above situations? Those receipts are not eligible expenses so that you can’t claim Ontario Staycation Tax Credit in 2022.
But you may have one hope. In some third party suppliers like Expedia.com or hotels.com, as their business models differs, some charged guests’ bookings like prepaid vacations/hotel bookings as they don’t charge HST as being a US supplier. However, those suppliers only collected payments on some other like last minute booking. What that means the hotels that you stayed in would be the supplier to charge you instead of those US suppliers. You can call back the hotels and request for the statement, which would be nicely listed out HST number and the amount for HST charges.
So, you may have some luck to get back $400 as a family. It’s worth the effort to give a call or dig a little bit deeper.
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