I'm a contract recipe tester. Can I claim my kitchen as my home office?

[MP682]

Hi community! Could someone help me figure out if I can claim my kitchen as a home office to qualify for the home office/utilities deduction?

Context: I'm an independent contractor who recipe tests for a publication. About 90% of my work is completed in my personal kitchen (the other 10% is buying recipe ingredients). This generally includes the cooking the recipes, analyzing the results, and completing a feedback form (all completed in the kitchen). I usually test anywhere from 5 to 8 recipes (sometimes upwards of 10+) a month, so you can imagine I'm in there quite a bit. 

So going back to my initial question, is it possible to claim a home office deduction and utilities deduction for my kitchen?

[ee-ea]

The "Exclusive and regular use" requirement will be hard to do.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/small-business-taxes/the-home-office-deduction/L1RZyYxzv

[AnnetteB6 · Accepted solution]

As stated by ee-ea, it would be difficult to claim your whole kitchen as a home office because it must be used exclusively for your business in order to qualify.  That means that the same space cannot be used for personal purposes.  

If you can determine some way to logically divide your kitchen into exclusive business use and personal use and document how you determine what part is business use, then you could potentially claim a portion of the space as business use.  You would not be able to claim the whole kitchen though.

See the following TurboTax help article for more information:

What does "Regular and Exclusive Use" mean?

@MP682 

[Mike9241]

@MP682 unless you use the kitchen exclusively for the contract recipe testing you are not allowed to take any home-office deduction. any personal use for any reason disqualifies you