The actual use of the home is what matters. If you use a portion of the home as your home office, you may be able to take the home office deduction.
You might qualify to deduct a prorated portion of your expenses based on the size of the home office relative to the entire home. For example, if your home is 1500 square feet and you use one room of 150 square feet for the home office, you could deduct 10% of your home expenses such as mortgage interest, rent, property taxes, repairs, and utilities.
There are specific requirements to be met in order to claim the home office deduction.
First, the space must be used exclusively and regularly in your business. In other words, your kitchen table does not qualify because you also eat breakfast there. But if you designate a room or portion of the home only for business use, it could meet this test.
Second, the home office must be your "principal place of business". The IRS states that "A taxpayer can also meet this requirement if administrative or management activities are conducted at the home and there is no other location to perform these duties. Therefore, someone who conducts business outside of their home but also uses their home to conduct business may still qualify for a home office deduction." How small business owners can deduct their home office from their taxes | Internal Revenue Service (...
Here's a great TurboTax help article about the deduction.
If you are actually using any portions of the home for personal use as your home, or for nonexclusive business use, those portions of the home do not qualify for the home office deduction. Simply putting the home address as your business location does not transform it into a deduction unless the requirements above are met for a specific portion of the space in the home.
**Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post
**Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"
