Home Office Deduction for 2 Offices in Same House: Married File Jointly

[tphtph]

Wife and I each have a separate office in our house.  We are full-time employees of 2 different companies who each allow us to work from home.  (We do not have our our home business but rather are regular employees for work for companies).

In the Deductions area of TurboTax, I began with my own office, and entered the size, the cost of our utilities for the whole house, maintenance, the cost of the mortgage and mortgage interest, etc.     

Next was for my wife, and it's the same questions...cost of utilities, maintenance, etc...the same questions that I was asked earlier.

My question is do I enter the same amount for each of us?   For example, if our utilities for the entire house was $2,000 last year, do I enter $2,000 on my own and $2,000 on my wife's?  Or $1,000 each?

Thank you!

[JohnB5677]

Yes,  provided you have separate work spaces those expenses will be apportioned based on the square footage of each office compared to the are of the entire house.

Please be careful:

Employees may only take the home office deduction if they maintain the home office for the convenience of their employer. An employee's home office is deemed to be for an employer's convenience only if it is:

• a condition of employment
• necessary for the employer's business to properly function, or
• needed to allow the employee to properly perform his or her duties.

The convenience of employer test is not met if using a home office is for your convenience or because you can get more work done at home.

Please have documentation available if the IRS should ask questions.

[tphtph]

Thank you, John.   Very helpful.

Yes, each of us works for different companies, and the companies both eliminated our physical offices and told us to work from home.

When you say the expenses will be apportioned, I notice two different fields in TurboTax for us to fill out.  One is for the maintenance/utilities, etc. for the entire home.   The other is for the maintenance/utilities for the home office portion.

We don't really have separate bills for the home office part, but I know our entire-home utilities are $2,000 per year.    So I will enter that $2,000 on my wife's field, and then enter the same number for my own.   I wasn't sure about this, because I don't want to imply that we spend $4,000.