I work from home. What portion of utilities can you deduct? Do I enter in home and office expenses?

[wrightmom]

I work from home and I am required to have Internet connection. I need to know what percentage of utilities I can deduct.

[WillK · Accepted solution]

There are two different options for calculating the expenses for your Home office:

1. Simplified Method-  This new simplified option can significantly reduce recordkeeping burden by allowing a qualified taxpayer to multiply a prescribed rate by the allowable square footage of the office in lieu of determining actual expenses.

2. must determine the actual expenses of their home office. These expenses may include mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs, and depreciation. Generally, when using the regular method, deductions for a home office are based on the percentage of your home devoted to business use. So, if you use a whole room or part of a room for conducting your business, you need to figure out the percentage of your home devoted to your business activities.

Either option you choose TurboTax can walk you through the method and help you calculate all the expenses you have and qualify to use for your Home Office. 

To get to that part of the program follow the steps below: (the best program to use is TurboTax Home and Business)

1. Login to your account

2. On the top right corner of the screen you will see My Account, click My Account

3. Click Tools

4. Click Topic Search, type in 'home office deduction', click enter, click go

5. Follow the prompts and decide which method you want to use 

[wrightmom]

I'm trying to determine if I enter my yearly total on utilities for things like electric bill, etc for each month under Tell us about your home expenses?  I assume this would be yearly totals since you are required to enter real estate taxes and mortgage insurance.  Does it then auto population into Tell Us about your office expenses since I entered my home and office square footage?

[WillK]

Assuming you had the home office for the whole year then yes, you enter in the yearly totals.