topic Are legal fees to challenge a property upset sale deductible if the property is used for both home in Deductions & credits

Are legal fees to challenge a property upset sale deductible if the property is used for both home

danshousestudio — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 15:23:13 GMT

We did get the upset sale overturned and were able to keep our property. But without the court challenge to the upset sale, we would have lost our home AND my home workplace, where I've been working for 20 years. The workplace at home is a video/photo/audio production studio, not simply a home office with a desk

Re: Are legal fees to challenge a property upset sale deductible if the property is used for both...

DMarkM1 — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 16:28:34 GMT

Assuming you are self-employed you will need to allocate the costs according to the amount of space used for the business in your home. It would be part of the "Home Office" deduction in TurboTax under the self-employment topic. TurboTax will help with the allocation based on your entries for square footage of the home office and entire home.

However if you are an employee who is working from home, there is no longer a deduction for employee business expenses, including a home office.

Re: Are legal fees to challenge a property upset sale deductible if the property is used for both...

danshousestudio — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 16:36:00 GMT

So, in other words, if 35% of my home's floor space were used for my home office, then 35% of the legal fees used to support our upset sale challenge cold be deducted?

Re: Are legal fees to challenge a property upset sale deductible if the property is used for both...

DMarkM1 — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 18:04:31 GMT

Yes, but that could also be limited by the income you produced from the home office. If limited by your gross income then the excess could be carried over to the next year. TurboTax will help you with the calculations as you go through the interview.