If you’re a professional musician and your employment contract required you to buy a musical instrument or cover the work-related expenses of an instrument you already own, you might be able to claim a deduction using form TP-78.4-V.
The expenses you’re claiming cannot be more than the income you earned as a salaried musician in a given year (less any other deductions you’re making that are related to this income). Any personal expenses, like the ones listed below, can’t be claimed against this income:
- The cost of sheet music, scores, scripts, transcriptions, photographs, arrangements, and other recordings
- Videotaping and recording costs which are only meant to help yourself study and improve
If you want to claim a deduction for work-related expenses other than those related to your musical instrument, you’ll need to complete the TP-59-V and TP-64.3-V forms. These forms are combined with the TP-78.4-V in H&R Block’s tax software.
Note: You won’t be able to claim a deduction for your musical instrument if you’re claiming the same expenses as a self-employed musician.
Where do I claim this?
Follow these steps in H&R Block’s 2017 tax software:
Before you begin, make sure you told us that you lived in Québec on December 31, 2017.
- On the PREPARE tab, click the IN THIS SECTION icon.
- Under Employment expenses (home office, tools, etc.), credits or deductions related to your job, and employment income that's not show on a slip (tips, royalties, etc.), click the Add This button.
- Click the EMPLOYMENT icon. You'll find yourself here:
- Under the EXPENSES heading, select the checkbox labelled Employment expenses, then click Continue.
- When you arrive at the Employment expenses page, answer Yes to the question Were you employed as a professional musician?.
- Select Salaried Musician from the Go To Page dropdown menu.
- Enter your information into the tax software.
