How To Write Off Taxes For Home Offices

Is it possible to write off taxes for home offices expenses? According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), it is possible for a taxpayer that uses his or her house for work or business to claim a home office tax deduction. In fact, the IRS allows taxpayers to declare expenses from business use of the home. To know more about this privilege, here are some things you need to know about work-from-home tax deduction.

In this guide:

1. What Are The Requirements To Qualify My Home Office For Tax Write Off?
2. What Can Be Considered Deductible Expenses In My Home Office?
3. How Can I Compute Tax Write Off For My Home Office?
4. Where Can I Write Off Home Office Expenses?

FAQs: How To Write Off Taxes For Home Offices

How Can  My Home Office Qualify For Tax Write Offs?

If you are a self-employed individual and you are using your house as your office, whether part or the entirety of it, you may qualify to declare tax deductions on expenses for business use of your home given the following scenarios:

• Exclusive and regular use of your house (or parts of it) as the principal place of business
• Exclusive and regular use of your house in meeting or dealing with customers, clients, or patients for your trade or business
• Regular use of your house for storage
• For rental use
• As a facility for daycare

If you are an employee and you are using parts of your house for work, you may qualify to declare tax deductions on expenses for business use of your home. You just have to meet the requirements stated above plus the following conditions:

• You use your house for business purposes for the convenience of your employer.
• You are not renting parts of the house from your employer.

What Can Be Considered Deductible Expenses In My Home Office?

There are two types of home office expenses that can be considered deductible expenses:

• Direct expenses: costs associated with the business part of your home office. This includes supplies, equipment, room renovation services, etc. Full deductions are made for these types of expenses.
• Indirect expenses: costs associated with running the entire home office. This includes utility bills, property insurance and mortgage, alarm system, etc. Deductibles under these expenses depend on the ratio of office use in your house.

How Can I Compute Tax Write Offs For My Home Office?

There are two ways in which one can calculate tax deductions for home office expenses:

Regular/Actual Method

This is determined through the actual expenses of your home office. You must first identify whether your home office expenses fall under direct or indirect expenses, then compute the business percentage — the percentage of work usage for that particular expense (based on how much was consumed for official business activities).

You may use any of the following methods to compute the business percentage:

• Divide the floor area for business use by the total area of your house
• For home offices with rooms that are about the same size, divide the number of rooms for business use by the total number of rooms in your home.

Simplified Method

The tax deduction under this method is the sum of each amount for qualified business use of your home. To compute your deduction using the simplified method, you need to know the following information:

• allowable work/business area in your home
• gross income from working at home
• total business expenses not related to domestic expenses

For the computation, you may follow these steps:

1. Multiply the allowable business area in your house by $5 (or less than $5 if the qualified business use is for a daycare that uses space in your home on a regular, but not exclusive, basis).
2. Subtract the home business-related expenses from your home business gross income. If expenses are greater than the gross income, a tax deduction is not possible.
3. Check which amount is smaller between Steps 1 and 2. This is the amount you can deduct from your tax.

Where Can I Write Off Home Office Expenses?

You may declare tax deductions for home office expenses through Form 1040.

If you are a self-employed individual, report the deduction on line 30 of Form 1040 Schedule C for trade-related businesses. For farm-related businesses, report the deduction on line 32 of Form 1040 Schedule F.

If you are an employed individual, itemize the expenses on Form 1040 Schedule A to claim a deduction. For statutory employees, use Form 1040 Schedule C to claim expenses.

To know more details on how to write off taxes for home offices, and how to take advantage of this home office tax deduction privilege, check out this video by Entrepreneur:

To write off taxes for home offices, simply take note of the guide provided in this discussion. Take advantage of the work-from-home tax deduction scheme to see your tax dues go down and save some extra cash.

Are there other details about tax deductions on business use of home you wish to share? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

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