I've long assumed that even though I do all my self-employment work in one bedroom of my apartment and the room isn't used for any other purpose, I still can't take the home office deduction because I use my computer for both work and personal matters. I recently read that I can use the percentage that I use my computer for work as the basis for the home office deduction. Is that correct? If so, how do I figure it:
(A) Multiply the office area (25% of the apartment) by the percentage I use the computer for work (call it 80%) to get a deduction of 20% of my rent;
or
(B) Multiply the amount I use the computer for work times the cost of the computer, ignoring the room, which I guess would come to $0 because I bought the computer 5 years ago;
or something else?
