1. Are costs for medical and/or health and safety personnel required due to COVID-19 eligible costs for tax credits? What about expenses related to testing for COVID-19 and extra cleaning and sanitation costs?
OCASE COVID-19
Costs for medical and/or health and safety personnel required due to COVID-19 will be considered eligible costs for the OCASE tax credit so long as all criteria for qualifying labour expenditures are met, including:
- these costs are directly attributable to eligible computer animation and special effects activities for the eligible Ontario production
- these costs are reasonable in the circumstances
- these costs are paid to individuals who were resident in Ontario at the end of the last calendar year ending before they undertook the activities and the individuals reported to a permanent establishment of the corporation in Ontario or performed the activities at a permanent establishment of the corporation in Ontario
- these costs were paid no later than 60 days after the end of the year
Likewise, labour costs related to testing for COVID-19 or cleaning and sanitation costs that meet the criteria for qualifying labour expenditures can be claimed for the OCASE tax credit. However, non-labour costs such as the cost of a test kit, or cleaning supplies and equipment, will not be considered eligible costs for OCASE.