Who Wants to Take a Home Office Deduction?

You should if you want to take full advantage of a tax deduction many people overlook. The home office deduction allows individuals to deduct expenses that are not otherwise deductible such as utilities and homeowners insurance. There are certain requirements you must meet to have a home office,Who Wants to Take a Home Office Deduction? Articles including:

You own a business (if you are an employee, you must meet the “for the convenience of the employer” test). You have an area set aside in your home used regularly and exclusively for specific administrative or management activities There is no other place of business where you conduct those activities

These requirements help you to determine whether the area used in your home is your principle place of business for certain business functions.

If you don’t think the area you use qualifies, you may just need to change the facts. Are there too many nonbusiness items in your office area? Move them to another room and you may qualify. Are you struggling to find business activities that you can do at home? Bookkeeping, billing and ordering supplies are just a few activities that are easily done from home.

Once you’ve determined that you have a home office and you would like to take the home office deduction, you need to track certain expenses.

Allowable home office expenses include:

– Utilities

– Mortgage interest

– Property taxes

– Homeowners and liability insurance

– Repairs and maintenance of office area

– Depreciation of office area

Deductions that do not qualify as home office expenses 오피 소개 are items that do not relate to the home office such as landscaping and pool care. In addition, taxpayers are denied a deduction on a first phone line regardless of the level of business use. A taxpayer must have a second phone line to deduct telephone expenses, long distance charges and internet service.

Of course you can’t deduct 100% of these expenses. The expenses are allocated based on square footage or number of rooms in the house. In most cases, the number of rooms allocation yields a higher deduction, make sure your CPA calculates both numbers to maximize your deductions.