I am a US employee who's company has me designated as a "work at home" employee. This means I no longer occupy a "slot" or office space within the branch ( located about 30 miles away in ). I work every day from my home and no longer travel on business. My company only reimburses me for phone expenses. My question is : Do I qualify for the Home Office deduction when filing my Federal taxes ? Any and all advice wecolmed.
spaberlejr As long as you have exculsive use proalby yes.Would help if you meet company clients there.You did not say what type of business you are in.Employee office in home is even harder.Just for the convience of employer doesn't assure it.Remeber you are on 2106 must itemize and if you are already paying amt being more bottom heavy on your sch A doesn't help.
I called the IRS about this and they basically said "no." Your telephone, computer & workspace must all be 100% dedicated to your job - in other words, if you use your computer for anything other than work you can't deduct your ISP charges. They also have criteria for your workspace, has to be a certain number of square feet, etc. For electricity you have to be able to prove that the amount of the deduction matches up with your work hours vs. power bill, which seems impossible. The IRS agent told me that I could take the deductions, but when they "caught" me (and she assured me they would) if I didn't have all documentation I'd not only have to pay the taxes with penalties, but also risk the federal offense of lying on my taxes. I decided it wasn't worth it!
My accountant gets me credit for my home office so there must be a way. I have provided him with the size and of course all of my bills. I have found that using him has actually made me money because of all of the expenses I wasn't taking on my own. You may want to look into that too. If you don't have someone you know I can give you his contact info - just send me a message - he is in Florida but works for people and business all over the place and has saved me a ton of money over the past 8 years.
Hi, I'm an accountant by trade and I have advised and performed tax returns for individuals for over 10 years. Anybody who has been self employed or work at home recipients have always been allowed to deduct the work at home percentage of use. In other words, you calculate the total square footage of your property. Identify what is used for business purposes. Divide the business use square footage by total footage and this percentage, what ever it may be, can be used to claim that portion of all home expenses, including rent/mortgage, utilities, telephone and insurance.
