2020 was a complicated year. I had 2 W2 jobs and 3 home businesses. I have a few questions about home and auto deductions.
W2 Business A was a traditional 40hrs/week job but 100% remote. I used a dedicated space in my basement for this work, which by square footage was 5% of my total house. Despite my using my home for work for 10 months, my understanding is that I cannot deduct any home office expenses. My Sister-In-Law says that I can, but I could not see anything in TurboTax that would allow it. Is she correct and if so, how do I enter home office expenses in TurboTax?
W2 Business B was working for the US Census. I was paid for car expenses, so this job gets me nothing on either a home or auto deduction. To the contrary, because I was compensated per mile for my driving, I actually have greater income. Is this correct, and if so, then how do I enter auto expenses on a W2?
Schedule C Home Business #1 was a few months of driving for a food delivery service before the pandemic started. I did not work in the home at all but drove and used my phone a lot, so I deducted my auto and phone expenses based as a percentage of the number of miles driven for the year and the number of hours I used the phone for the job.
Schedule C Home Business #2 was a blip - I tried my hand at freelance work through Upwork but only won one contract worth $200. I used the same dedicated space in my basement as in W2 Business A. Not worth deducting the space I used as a home office, right? Or should I have just folded this into Business #3 even though it was more related to Business A?
Schedule C Home Business #3 provided more substantial income and added 4-6 hours to the workday. This freelance work was also paid through Upwork but not enough to warrant an 1099 (though there was a 1099-NEC for compensation in lieu of cash). Again, I used the same dedicated work space, and on this business I included a home office deduction. Was this correct?
One other piece of information. After totaling up all my personal deductions, I was within $600 of moving beyond the standard deduction of $12,400 and being able to itemize.
Can anyone help me wrap my head around whether I did this right? If not, what should I have done? I have 2 days to fix it.
Thank you.
