w-2 doesn't qualify. income from self-employment including 1099-NEC does. assuming she has not created a tax entity apart from herself such as an S-Corp (ie is she operates as either a single member LLC that has not elected corporate taxation or has not formed an LLC) she would file a schedule C.
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the rules to be eeligible to take a home office deduction are as follows
To claim the deduction, a taxpayer must use part of their home for one of the following:
- Exclusively and regularly as a principal place of business for a trade or business
- Exclusively and regularly as a place where patients, clients or customers are met in the normal course of a trade or business
there are two options if she qualifies for the HO deduction actual expenses based on square footage that meets one of the above test to the total square footage of her apartment or the safe harbor rule which is $5(2022) per square foot (maximum 300 square feet) used for the home office. Note that if she uses that space as part of her w-2 employment it may disqualify her from taking the HO deduction
