My office is in my home which is co-owned with another person. For square footage of home, do I answer that with total square footage of home or only of my half?
There are two methods to claim the Home Office Deduction. You will only claim the amount of space actually used for the home office based on the square footage of your ownership in the home.
Your home office business deductions are based on either the percentage of your home used for the business or a simplified square footage calculation.
The most exact way to calculate the business percentage of your house is to measure the square footage devoted to your home office as a percentage of the total area of your home. If the office measures 150 square feet, for example, and the total area of the house is 1,200 square feet, your business percentage would be 12.5%.
The simplified square footage method may be the best way to claim this expense.
Beginning with 2013 tax returns, the IRS began offering a simplified option for claiming the deduction. This new method uses a prescribed rate multiplied by the allowable square footage used in the home.
With either method, the qualification for the home office deduction is determined each year. Your eligibility may change from one year to the next. Finally, please note that only certain expenses such as rent, mortgage interest and property taxes qualify for the deduction, and the deduction is limited to $10,000.
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The simplified square footage method may be the best way to claim this expense, in your situation.
Otherwise use total square footage for the calculation ( 12.5% in RayW7's example) then multiply it by your percentage of the expenses. For example if you pay 50% of the utilities, your business utility deduction would be 6.25% of the utility bill.
I'd really like to see an answer to the important part of this question as I'm in the same boat. If I co-own my home 50/50 as a joint tenancy with full survivorship rights, what do I enter as the total square footage of my home. Do I enter 826 sq. ft which would be half of my homes total sq. ft. or would I enter all of the floor space: 1652 sq. ft. I've been told both ways - which is correct?
The correct way is to use the total square footage of the entire house assuming that both names are on the deed.
Thank you so much! Could you tell me, the question after the square footage is to enter the taxes. Do I enter 1/2 or all?
You only own half the home so you would only include that half. Since this is true, if the co-owner uses utilities and other home expenses, you would only be able to take a percentage of that half as well.
I just want to double check here - I've had two different accountants tell me to use 50% of my home's square footage since I own 50%. One of those two said that I could use either method but both said 50% of the taxes and expenses. Thanks for confirming.
Yes, it only makes sense that you can only take a deduction based on what you actually own.
Hi Coleen - I didn't understand your response. You said yes it only makes sense.... did you mean, I should only enter 50% of the total home square footage - or that I should enter all of the square footage?
Is there an IRS document to refer to? Can't find anything....