Home Office and Hurricane Damage – Which Casualty Loss option Is correct in TurboTax?

[patmag]

Hi, I’m self-employed (1099) and work from a home office that's a dedicated room in my primary home. My home suffered some damages in Hurricane Milton, and I’m trying to correctly report the loss in TurboTax. I’m confused about which “property type” to select under the casualty loss (Form 4684) section.

TurboTax gives me two options:

• Personal Property (includes home offices deducted under the Simplified Method)
• Income-Producing Property (includes business property and investment properties)
  
  

I don’t use the Simplified Method for my home office, I use actual expenses. If I go through the Disasters section under Deductions & Credits, it treats it as personal-use property and calculates the loss that way. But if I go through it from the Schedule C “Home Office” section, it treats it as business property and lowers my Schedule C income directly — which results in lower tax owed. Same when I select either of the above options.

I know one route puts the loss on Form 4684 Page 1 (personal), and the other on Page 2 (business). I've read that even if I use the actual expense method, the home office is still treated as personal property for disaster loss purposes, unless it’s a separate structure.

Can anyone confirm the correct way to report this? Should I go with “Personal Property” even if I’m not using the simplified method?

Thank you!

[RobertB4444]

Yes, go with the personal property even if you aren't using the simplified method.

@patmag