Hello @justarabbitfortaxes ! Thanks for participating in our event today. This is a great question. There is a lot of confusion out there about home office expenses.
One of the main criteria to claim a portion of your home as a business expense, is 'exclusive and regular use'. This means you would need to set aside a certain area that is exclusively used for your business, and not personal use. That being said, it doesn't require a specific boundary such as an entire room. If you put a desk in the corner of your living room that you use for business, that would qualify. If you add an island in your kitchen, or designate a side counter purely for business use, that would count too. But unfortunately, using your couch for business sometimes and personal use sometimes is not going to qualify for a deduction.
However, you did mention storing business products in your closets. This is one of the exceptions to the rule. Storage of inventory, samples etc qualifies for a deduction. If you occasionally store personal items in the same room/closet, that will not disqualify you from claiming a deduction for that area. The easiest way to claim this deduction is called the simplified square footage method, which would allow you to deduct $5 per square foot.
Here are some great resources on the subject:
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/small-business-taxes/the-home-office-deduction/L1RZyYxzv
https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc509
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p587
I hope that helps! Feel free to reach back out if you need more clarification.
