Home office - how to calculate deductions?

[Anonymous]

How do you deduct expenses for a home office? Can anyone recommend any reliable websites for advice?

I rent out a bedroom in my home for Airbnb - made around $4k last year on the rental. Is it worth the hassle to claim the income and itemize deductions? I wonder if it's easier to just not claim the income at all and take the chance I'd be hit with a penalty.

[Anonymous]

Do your research, people often forget that whether they file information or not, like hidden investments, the institution is also filing paperwork on your behalf.
Airbnb filed on your behalf.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Self-Employment-Taxes/10-Tax-Tips-for-Airbnb--HomeAway---VRBO-Vacation-Rentals/INF29184.html

Ditto for a home office, and note that working from home is not the same thing. If you're generally working on a laptop on your dining room table, that's not considered a home office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do your research, people often forget that whether they file information or not, like hidden investments, the institution is also filing paperwork on your behalf.
Airbnb filed on your behalf.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Self-Employment-Taxes/10-Tax-Tips-for-Airbnb--HomeAway---VRBO-Vacation-Rentals/INF29184.html

Ditto for a home office, and note that working from home is not the same thing. If you're generally working on a laptop on your dining room table, that's not considered a home office.

Thanks. I know, I'm looking into this at the same time. It looks like the IRS has a page set up for Airbnb type things (sharing economy resource), so that's helpful. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/sharing-economy-tax-center#expenses

In this case, I don't think Airbnb reported it because it's less than $20k and 200 transactions, but I could be misunderstanding. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/414/should-i-expect-to-receive-a-tax-form-from-airbnb

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you deduct expenses for a home office? Can anyone recommend any reliable websites for advice?

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Small-Business-Taxes/The-Home-Office-Deduction/INF12067.html

[Anonymous]

You take the number 1 and divide by the number of bedrooms. If you have a smaller house I would take the larger of sf of office/ total sf or the number of bedroom calculations

[Anonymous]

You usually take % of total square footage and count that as percent of everything you can claim - so for our home office(s) - we are both self employed/different businesses - we claim X% of mortgage, insurance, utilities, landscaping - anything that we can think of that has any cost associated to it to 'run' the space we use