Hi TurboTax community! I'm reposting this because the previous post got marked as spam, but I genuinely believe there are questions here that haven't been answered elsewhere.
I recently purchased a new laptop that I primarily use for school assignments and side work. As such, I have a few questions and background information to help.
Background: Some courses require assignments to be submitted online or course material to be accessed from the website for the course.
In terms of work, I'm a consultant for a company and do all my work remotely (employer in WA, I live in/resident of CA). I do approximately 10hrs/week as a consultant with personal/school use of the laptop on a variable schedule. The laptop cost $3900 to purchase and was a replacement for my previous 4 1/2 year-old laptop (works but starting to become unreliable to use on-the-go).
-Question 1: Can I claim the laptop as an education expense? Based on other posts I've seen, it seems more likely than not I can, but given this background info I wonder if the situation changes.
-Question 2: If the university allows you to borrow laptops for free (for short-term daily basis before it must be returned or a fee is assessed), can I still deduct the laptop I purchased?
-Question 3: Since this laptop is used for multiple purposes (school, work, and personal use outside those hours), do I need to split up the time spent between the multiple uses and proportionally allocate the cost of the laptop?
