Every year we have tradespeople, whether it be a mechanic or similar, give us their receipts for their tools because they want to expense them on their tax return. Now, first of all, there is a Canada employment amount of $1,257 dollars that allows for people's employment expenses. If you're employed, this is automatically calculated on your tax returns. So that's what you get - $1,257 dollars to cover your employment expenses.

Now, there's special exceptions to that, apprentices and tradespeople being a couple of them. If your tradespeople that are journeymen want to claim their tools, they have to spend more than $1,257 dollars- out of that, they can only claim up to $500.

They have to spend $1,757 to get the full $500 deduction. Now that $500 comes directly off their income, so if they're making second tax bracket income, they're going to be saving themselves 30.5% in Alberta. If they’re making first tax market income, which hopefully a journeyman is not making, they'd only save 25%. Saving $125 dollars your taxes isn’t a huge amount, but it is definitely there and definitely worth it.