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zhang812
New Member

Home Office

If I rent an outside office where I conduct business most of the time and see clients, but also work out of my home office sometimes, can I deduct home office expenses?

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1 Reply
AbbyS
Employee Tax Expert

Home Office

It’s possible that you may be able to deduct your home office expenses.  However, the correct answer depends on what you mean by “sometimes” work out of your home office.

 

The rules for deducting home office expenses are that you must use your home office exclusively and regularly.  By exclusively, it means that you can’t claim the deduction if you use the space for any other reason other than for your business.  This means your home office can’t double as your dining room or game room.  

 

By regularly, it means that your home office is used not just occasionally or randomly.  Perhaps you use it every time you have administrative tasks such as bookkeeping or payroll.  This wouldn’t occur every day, but it would be on a regular basis.  Or perhaps you use your home office for communicating with clients through email every evening.  In both cases, it could be argued that you use your home office regularly. 

 

If this is a bit vague, it’s because the IRS doesn’t clearly define “regular use.”  It could vary from business to business, but I hope my examples helped.   

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