A new home renovation tax credit was announced yesterday but you may have missed how it works.

First the basic rules: The contract for the renovation or the purchases has to be made starting today -- January 28 -- at the earliest so if you made a deal yesterday or last week it doesn't qualify.

You have to have the work done by February first of 2010 -- so basically it's a one year deal only.

The goal is to get work going now, that starts to circulate money in the economy right away.

In general, regular maintenance does not qualify. The change has to be of a more permanent nature. So it includes renovations inside a home, bathroom, kitchen, basement, new floor coverings, painting inside or out, building a new deck, a fence, even a retaining wall, or laying new sod or resurfacing a driveway. You can claim a new furnace or water heater but you can't claim new appliances like a stove, refrigerator or new furniture.

The refund is 15 per cent of everything over $1,000 under $10,000 so if you spend $5,000 on new carpets, you would get a $600 tax credit.

One grey area is your roof. I called the finance department and they told me -- if you replace a roof -- that is definitely covered. But they are not sure if the cost of a repair is covered because guidelines are still being developed. Now many repairs would be less than a thousand dollars anyway -- so they wouldn't qualify based on that-- but we'll have to wait for the guidelines to see exactly where the dividing line is.

But when you think about it this will probably effect the underground economy as well. And that's a good thing. Those working under the table don't tend to give receipts do they? And they often don't stand behind their work -- and those are the complaints I hear about as a consumer reporter. If you want the tax deduction, you need receipts and you better talk about it upfront or you're not protected. And it's not honest because if you pay under the table those people don't pay taxes and that cheats all of us.

With a report by CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen