Claiming Work-Related Cell Phone Use as an Educator

[Thea_Isis]

I work in education, and a lot of my work-related communication with teachers happens on my personal cell phone. I have documentation of the calls and messages that are work-related. I’m wondering how I would calculate or report the total for this when filing my taxes. Should I total up the percentage of work-related use or report the full amount? Any guidance would be appreciated!

[xmasbaby0]

-W-2 employees cannot deduct job-related expenses on a federal return.  Job-related expenses were eliminated as a federal deduction for W-2 employees by the tax laws that changed for 2018 and beyond.  Your state tax laws might be different in AL, AR, CA, HI, MN, NY or PA.

If you live in a state that lets you deduct job-related expenses, the information will flow from your federal return  to the state return, so enter it in Federal>Deductions and Credits>Employment Expenses>Job-Related Expenses