Working from home and taxes...

[Anonymous]

I own and work from home. Talk to a tax professional, but in my case it wasn't worth the deduction because of taxes I would owe with the sale of my house. If you rent, I think the math is in your favor.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks for all the responses. I had no idea about the sale of the house and will check out the IRS site. It is 100% designated office, but has a closet that I have random moving boxes in right now so I'll have to see if it's even worth it. I'll find an accountant to run numbers with but everything with it is adding up more than we thought it would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any tips on what is tax deductible? DH will be working from home 100% soon in a bedroom we're using as an office. I've heard certain things (Internet usage, electric bill percentage,etc) are tax deductible but want to know what receipts to save. Are things like a printer for him to use (company doesn't provide) something? Any tips are appreciated!!!

Internet usage certainly won't be if you're also using the same connection to hop on to DCUM

He can do 100% but it will also be based on hours of work as well as pro rating certain things not solely used for his business.

With my daycare for instance. I can deduct a certain percentage of internet, phone, utilities, etc. I may use 100% of my home but I am not open 24 hours a day, and my internet, phone and utilities are also used for personal use obviously. So they do a time percentage thing. I have an accountant do my taxes. Anything he buys directly for business - office supplies like paper, ink for the printer, a printer itself, a computer, desk, etc is 100% deductible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thanks for all the responses. I had no idea about the sale of the house and will check out the IRS site. It is 100% designated office, but has a closet that I have random moving boxes in right now so I'll have to see if it's even worth it. I'll find an accountant to run numbers with but everything with it is adding up more than we thought it would.

If he is only using one room in the entire house, it technically isnt 100%. They go by sq foot x time to equal a percentage. it is confusing at best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thanks for all the responses. I had no idea about the sale of the house and will check out the IRS site. It is 100% designated office, but has a closet that I have random moving boxes in right now so I'll have to see if it's even worth it. I'll find an accountant to run numbers with but everything with it is adding up more than we thought it would.

If he is only using one room in the entire house, it technically isnt 100%. They go by sq foot x time to equal a percentage. it is confusing at best.

I wasn't saying 100% deductible, rather the office is for him to work in- it's not a dual purpose office or used for storage, etc. Previous posters mentioned if it had a bed it wasn't considered an office.

[Anonymous]

If you take the "home office" deduction, your chances of an audit increase some huge number like 40x, since a lot of people take it when they shouldn't. It's probably not worth it.

As for deducting things like a printer, internet, etc, if he's billing his employer as a consultant (Schedule C/1099), then he can just include it as expenses there.