Nothing has changed about my home office. 100 percent of my business is done there, but it is now saying that it doesn't qualify. Has something changed?

[BrittanyS]

There could be a few reasons why the home office deduction is stating you didn't qualify.  To qualify for the home office deduction you will want to make sure the following criteria are met:

• Home office must be designated exclusively for business work and used regularly
• Home office must be the principal place of business.

To check that you have entered the information correctly into TurboTax Online follow these steps:

1. Click Wages & Salaries
2. Click Add/Edit on Self Employment
3. Under Expenses Select Home Office
4. Verify the information is correctly entered as it pertains to your business.

Please see the following link for more detail on claiming a home office deduction:

The Home Office Deduction

[Carl]

Sometimes one can mis-understand or mis-interpret the information being requested. Maybe a bit of clarity will help.

Percentage of time this home office was used for business: This must be 100%. Doesn't matter if you only used it one hour a week. If it was used solely for business during that one hour weekly, then it's 100% business use. So if the office was used by the kids for doing homework, it's not 100% business use and therefore does not qualify for the home office deduction.

Percentage of business conducted in this office: This can be (and usually is) less than 100%. The percentage of business actually conducted in that home office is used in the equation to figure the depreciation you're allowed to take, as well as what percentage of "whole house" expenses you're allowed to deduct.