How do I take the home office deduction when I moved mid year?

[zombitroid]

Hello - PLEASE HELP!

I had 2 home offices in 2025 - home office 1 was through september and the home office 2 started 10-1-2025. Expenses for each home office differ. Square footage of each room differs, for example. The percent of utilities used for each home office differs, for example.

Turbo tax is asking me how long i spent in each home office. Now, by looking at raw dates: i spent the first 9 months of 2025 in home office 1 and the last 3 months in home office 2 - which is 75%, and 25%, respectively

I have the option to merge the two home office expenses and write them off as one singular home office OR account for each separately.

My question is: what is the most accurate way or best way to account for this situation in turbo tax? I want to take the full deduction I deserve. Even though I was only in home office 2 for 3 months of 2025, the expenses were large. For example, the portion of my rent proportioned for home office 2 is larger than home office 1, and so the expenses at home office 2 were NOT just 25% of the year's expenses, they were closer to 40% or 50%

in short - home office 2 is much more expensive than home office 1

I'm saying i spent 25% of the year at home office 2, and i'm writing off 30% of the rent paid at this location because i use my home office so much for work - will that rental deduction be fully accounted for? or is there a better way to do this?

I've heard you can merge your home office expenses into one home office for the year and just average everything out. For example, instead of having 2 home offices to deduct ( 1 for 9 months and 1 for 3 months ) - just merge the two and say i had one home office all year. I paid X in rent, i paid this much in utilities. etc., etc.,

But then how does that above situation work when 10% of my PGE bill was deducted for home office 1 and 30% is deducted for home office 2? ( i lived with people in the first location and don't any more - so more of the utilities are used for my home office during working hours )

Currently: i'm writing them off as 2 separate offices and saying i spent 75% of my time at home office 1 and 25% at home office 2 ( problem with this again is that my rent at home office 2 is very large and i only said I spend 25% of my time there ). I'm just worried i won't get my fulll deduction this way

I'm starting to think the more accurate way is to find a way to average the two and merge them into ONE home office.

Again, i never had 2 home offices at once.

TLDR: have 2 sets of home office expenses to account for during 2025 and trying to figure out how to account for them on my 2025 taxes in turbo tax. Do i merge them into one home office or write them off as separate home offices? I'm worried the latter option ( separate home offices ) wont get me the deduction i deserve

[AnnetteB6]

You should include them as two separate home offices on your tax return instead of trying to combine them as one.  

The key to getting the most of the home office deduction is making sure the percentage of time you use each office is accurate.  This means the percentage of time during the year (75% and 25% for the example you gave) as well as the percentage of time the office was used for your self-employment work.  If you used each office 100% of the time to do your work, then 75% and 25% will be the percentages entered for each office.  But, if you also had other places where you performed your work, then the office use will be less than 100% and the 75/25 split will need to be prorated further.  

For example, if you only spend 50% of your working time in your home office, then office 1 percentage will be 12.5% (50% of 25), and office 2 percentage will be 37.5% (50% of 75).

It is important to pay close attention to messaging on the screen to know how to enter your expenses for each office (whether the full amount or just an amount specific to the office).  Also, remember that you will enter the expenses for each one separately, so it will seem like you are doing everything twice.

For more information and examples, take a look at the following TurboTax help article:

How do I allocate expenses for two home offices?
 

[zombitroid]

i understand that. but home office 2 is a LOT more expensive than home office 1 - and so putting only 25% of the year there is going to make turbo tax bias home office 1 more in my final home office deduction and a lot of those expenses for home office 2 will not get deducted.

am i making sense? is my fear reasonable?

is this just how it works and there is no way to capture that extra deduction from the more expensive home office because it was only used 25% of the year?

the way i'm looking at it is that in in 2025 i spent $XXXXX.XX dollars   on home office related expenses ( rent, utilities, internet etc., )  and MOST of that money came from home office 2 which was only used 25% of the year..

but in my mind somehow, i still spent all that money on JUST my home office, why cant I deduct all of it? why does some of it get left on the table because i didn't spend enough time at home office 2?

home office 1 was, simply put, a LOT cheaper rent wise but i spent 75% of the year there

is there any legal way to capture all of the deduction i deserve and deduct all of my home office expenses for the year?

[AnnetteB6]

No, you will not be able to deduct everything you spent for home office expenses.  The expenses must be allocated based on the combination of time spent using each office and the time spent working in your business in each office.  

The items you mentioned (such as rent, utilities, internet) are not 100% office expenses even though they may seem like it.  Those are expenses related to your whole home and they would be further limited by the square feet of the office versus the whole home.  This calculation will be done for each home office.  

The reality is that the home office deduction is usually less significant than you might expect because of the limitations that must be imposed based on square feet, time using the home office, and time spent working in the office.  

@zombitroid 

[zombitroid]

so you all are saying: do the 75% 25% split and have 2 home offices for the year correct

[AnnetteB6]

Yes, you will have two home offices for the year.  Your percentages of 75% for the first office and 25% for the second office are only valid if you spend 100% of your time working from the home office and did not have other work locations for your business.  

If you did have other work locations, the 75% and 25% will be further reduced by the percentage of time spent working in the home offices.

@zombitroid 

[zombitroid]

@AnnetteB6 

Ok - one last clarification question -

now its asking me to split my business expenses between the two home offices. total should add to 100%

its saying what percentage of my expenses occurred at each home office

it says "the percentage should include things like vehicle, advertising, and communications expenses and anything else you might not have entered yet. You should NOT include your home office expenses in this amount, since those are calculated differently."

example: ryan had 2 home offices and spent most of his time at 1. his split is 80 20  ( %)

i sell things online. do i include my business purchases in this calculation? or is it just the rent / utilities paid at the home offices? total them up for both offices for the year and then divide them out to get the percentages?

home office 1 rent + utilities + ( home office 2 rent + utilities ) = total expenses

then the answer for home office 1 would just to be divide that out and multiply by 100 right??

what expenses do i include in this?? rent, utilities, internet, phone, what else??

[AnnetteB6]

This question is asking about your business expenses not including anything related to the home office itself.  

So, in this case it would be all the other business expense categories that you enter such as advertising, supplies, business license, sales tax, postage, etc.  Include anything except expenses related to the home office.  If your business purchases are reported as a business expense versus inventory, then yes, your business purchases will be included as well.

If those other expenses are generally consistent through the year, you would allocate them to each home office according to the time each office was used based on the months you lived in each location.

@zombitroid 

[zombitroid]

do this doesn't include things like rent / utilities? when it asks for percentage of home office expenses incurred at each home office - its asking for things that don't include rent / utilities? internet? heating fees?

[AnnetteB6]

That's correct.  It is asking you to allocate your other business expenses to each home office.  Therefore, anything that you are claiming with regard to the home office, like rent and utilities, is not included in this calculation.  

Things such as supplies, postage, business insurance, business bank fees, and other expenses related only to the business would be included for this allocation.  

@zombitroid