The home office deduction is not considered itemizing. Before going any further, to answer your question about the home office deduction, it's important to know whether you are a self-employed independent contractor or if you are an employee.
Employees
Employees working from home can't take the home office deduction, even if you've been asked to work from home due to COVID-19. This has been in place since 2018, when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law. Prior to that, employees who worked from home at the convenience of their employer were allowed to deduct home office expenses under the 2% rule.
Here is a TurboTax article with more information about employees and home office deductions.
Self-employed sole proprietors and business owners
If you work for yourself and conduct business from home, you can take a home office deduction.
To enter your home office expense along with other common business expenses:
- Open or continue your return.
- Search for Schedule C and select the Jump to link in the search results.
- Answer any questions about your business until you get to the Your self-employed work summary screen. Select Edit or Review next to your business.
- You might want to enter your 1099-MISC, 1099-K, cash, and personal check income from your self-employment before you associate any expenses with your business, but this is not required.
- You'll be asked What kind of expenses did you have for [type of work]? Select Home office. You can also select any other expense categories that apply to your business. Select Continue at the bottom of the screen when you're done.
- On the Here's your [type of work] info screen, scroll down to the Expenses section, and select Start next to Home office.
- Enter the info about your home office.
Here is a TurboTax article with more information about entering the home office deduction for businesses.
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