@footfeed wrote:
through the spring of 2020 when the pandemic had everything shut down, the building that my real estate office is located was practicaly shut down to the outside foot traffic. Can I deduct any of this time that I used my home office.
The bottom line is that all this should be covered in turbotax if you just run the interview.
You can deduct Home Office expenses on your federal and state return if you are self-employed (file a schedule C). You can't deduct the expense on your federal return if you are a W-2 employee but you may be able to deduct it on your state tax return. There was no federal exception created for COVID. If you list the expenses the program will do whatever is allowed for your situation.
Remember that a home office must be used exclusively for work, that means an area of your home set aside for work and not for personal use (including your personal office space for correspondence or family bookkeeping). It must also be used regularly for work -- it must be your main place of work, at least for the days when you claim a home office. If you had another regular office to work in, your home office is not your regular place of work, except that it might be your regular place of work if you were shut out of your regular office for certain months.
Turbotax should ask the dates you started and stopped using the home office. If Turbotax asks did you have another place of work, say no if it is true you were locked out of your regular place of work.
