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Assess the situation

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Question $2$

During $2023,$ Emily worked as a financial controller for Vector Industries $($VI$)$ and earned a salary of $$150,000.$ VI downsized its office space after the pandemic, and adopted a hybrid working policy whereby employees could work from home $4$ days a week. Given the smaller office footprint, it would not be possible for all VI employees to report to the office on the same day, so the hybrid arrangement is required to ensure that the building's fire code regulations are followed.

Emily worked from her home office $4$ days per week during $2023.$ Emily's home office is about $12\%$ of the total square footage of her home. Emily's role is not client facing, so she does not meet with clients of VI at her home.

Emily has summarized the following expenses related to her home:

$\backslash$table$[[$Mortgage interest,$$,29,000],[$Property tax,$7,200,],[$Utilities$,2,400,],[$Internet$,1,128,],[$New office furniture,,$1,750],[$Coffee beans,$130,]]$

The amounts above represent the cost incurred for the entire home $($and for the entire year$).$

Emily is unsure if she qualifies to claim home office expenses on her tax return, and how much her maximum deduction would be$.$

Required

Using the case writing methodology demonstrated in this course, assess the situation, analyze the major issues, and conclude and advise on Emily's situation.

Note: during the pandemic there were temporary rules in place for determining home office deductions. Those rules were not covered in this course, and they do not apply to $2023$ taxation years, so they are not relevant to answering this question.