@PattiF Your response was helpful my situation just gets complex. I can try to explain everything here in detail and welcome your feedback even if you advise me to call in.
I have a small biz as does my wife. So, two totally separate businesses. We also have completely separate home offices within the same home - no overlap. To make matters more complex, we spent half the year in one state and then moved to another. So, two people, two businesses, two home offices, two states.
Per TT software, we allocated the sqft each office comprises of the respective houses. On the expenses that are unique to the businesses, it is easy. Also, we do want to do the non-simplified method as our costs are higher. Where it gets confusing is the shared expenses.
So, let's say we spend $100/month for internet. That is $1200/year. But, since we had two houses, we say it is $600/each house. If we are then declaring expenses for each business in a given house, are we supposed to put $600 for each? This seems like double counting which is what I was told on the phone, but your articles imply $600 for Biz A in State X and $600 for Biz B in State X is right and the TT software will then allocate based on each home office's respective % of the total home sqft. So, for two businesses in two states, we would say $600 for each home office instead of $300 for each home office. Or that's how I read your linked articles.
Things like mortgage interest, real estate taxes, etc should follow similar logic. Another example, say we spent 6 months in State X and 6 months in State Y. The mortgage interest amounts were $1000 respectively or $2000 total across both homes/states. When inputting the proper amounts for TT purposes, my read on your articles is we should use $1000 for Biz A/State X, $1000 for Biz A/State Y, $1000 for Biz B/State X, and $1000 for Biz B/State Y. Again it seems like double counting but, since we've split the costs by the respective states/houses and the home offices will only deduct based on their non-overlapping % of the home used, this is the best way to proceed.
If we alternatively said $2000/2 (states) = $1000/2 (offices) = $500/biz/home office/state then we wouldn't be achieving the max allowable expenses. But it is a bit confusing.
Welcome your input. Based on my read of your articles, I believe the right way is to get total shared expenses for a given home/state and assign that total to each home office. The TT software will then use our declared home office % of total home to determine how much of the home's total shared expenses each office gets. Is that right?
