topic Should I allocate my "home office" square footage as a percentage of my living quarters only, or based on the entire square footage of the whole building? in Deductions & credits

Should I allocate my "home office" square footage as a percentage of my living quarters only, or based on the entire square footage of the whole building?

jkrijnen — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 18:35:39 GMT

My husband's retail bakery business occupies the street level, and we have 2 stories of living quarters above. We sometimes have employees and/or interns who live with us. Am I supposed to be allocating my "home office" square footage as a percentage of the living quarters only, or based on the entire square footage of the whole building, which includes the business? The bakery has a separate entrance and separate utilities.

When we purchased the building, we had to list the buildi...

jkrijnen — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 18:35:41 GMT

When we purchased the building, we had to list the building's basis and improvements for depreciation, so I've always calculated "home office" square footage based on the bakery space + space in our living quarters used for housing staff and storing paper goods, etc.

Generally if you have Commercial (business) space and res...

RichardK — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 18:35:42 GMT

Generally if you have Commercial (business) space and residential (living) space, your office percentage will be the square footage of the home office divided by the residential (living) square footage.