Is it more beneficial to report an expense (a printer) used for both work and school as an education or a work expense? Both? Split it?

[Vanessa · Accepted solution]

If you just purchased the printer this year you would need to allocate the expense based on use.  So if you use it 75% for work and 25% for school, this is how you would allocate it.  If you are self-employed and taking it as a business deduction, this would be a dollar for dollar decrease in your taxable income.  For school, this just goes to the calculation of either of the education credits which are limited. 

If you are using it as an employee as a job-related expense, your total employee expenses would need to be greater than 2% of your AGI and you would need to itemize your expenses to see any benefit from it.