I take the home office deduction each year (telecommute). Does that count as "Using the home for business" if planning to not report the sale of my home (profit was 50k)?

[greg-emanuele]

I meet all of the other criteria to not have to report the sale of my home, but I'm hung up on the language of "using it for business". I telecommute only. I didn't use the home for any other business ventures and I don't claim anything other than the home office deduction (300 sq.ft.). Do I have to report the sale of my home under that pretext? Thanks!

[Coleen3]

Yes, Office in Home is business use of your home. While you can exclude the capital gain, you must still recapture the depreciation allowed or allowable when you sell your home.

[greg-emanuele]

Follow up question... do I need to purchase TurboTax Premier to enter this one detail or can I use the 2106 Form as I have in the past?

[Coleen3]

TurboTax.com

[Opus 17]

Im not sure that link is correct.  The statement is true for desktop (installed on your own computer from a CD or download) -- you can report schedule D profit in Turbotax Deluxe on the Desktop and Premier has more help.

For online, you may need to upgrade to Premier.

You will also need to know all the prior depreciation you claimed as part of the home office deduction.  This will be on line 29 of form 8829 for all the past years when you took the deduction.  I don't know if turbotax keeps track of the cumulative depreciation amount, you may need to get all your old returns and add it up.

However, if, starting with your 2013 tax return, you used the simplified home office deduction, you don't have to include depreciation for those years.