Is there any way employees of a small corporation, spread over several states can be allowed the home office deduction?

[Bill41]

I am a corporate officer and a employee of a small business, 6 employees, whose main office is in my home.  All the employees are spread over several states, sharing an office is not possible. Now that W2 employees can't deduct home offices, what is a reasonable way to set up reimbursement to the employees for their use of a home office?

[MarilynG]

You could use an Accountable Plan for reimbursement of employee expenses, such as Home Office.

An accountable plan is a list of guidelines that you create that explains how you will reimburse expenses, and which expenses qualify for reimbursement. 

The IRS gives you a lot of flexibility in arranging the plan. The major requirements are:

1. The expenses must have a business connection; that is, they must have been paid or incurred while performing services as an employee
2. The employee must adequately account to the employer for these expenses within a reasonable time. You must require employees to provide you with detailed information on these expenses, including date, time, place, amount, and business purpose for the expense. 
3. You must require the employee to return excess reimbursements within a reasonable and specific period of time, depending on the circumstances. If employees are not required to turn in excess amounts, these amounts must be included in their income. 

If all three of these requirements are not met, the plan is determined by the IRS not to be accountable.

Here's a link to IRS info on Accountable Plans:

https://taxmap.irs.gov/taxmap/pubs/p535-056.htm#TXMP3a1f7e37

Although this article refers to an S-Corp, it gives some details about how accountable plans work:

https://proconnect.intuit.com/articles/home-office-deductions-expenses/

Edited 4/2/19 1:28 pm