PA State: Schedule UE for unreimbursed expenses (e.g. home office, $40 seat cushion). Turbotax wants "Depreciation Method". Can I claim whole cost? if so, what to enter?

[jason61]

COVID resulted in working from home. This necessitated purchase of some small office items (e.g. monitor, seat cushion, etc.) Most expensive item was $300 for monitor.  Most others were were lesser costs, $20-$40.   Can I deduct the whole purchase price instead of depreciating?  TurboTax wants me to enter Depreciation Method, but is not providing any information as to what options there are or what I should enter.  Very very disappointed in TurboTax on this item.

[ErnieS0]

Yes. You can expense your office equipment instead of depreciating them, i.e. spreading the deduction over several years.

NOTE: if you claim a home office deduction in Pennsylvania you must pay use tax on the amount of any utility deduction.

A taxpayer may use PA Schedule UE to report allowable unreimbursed business expenses which can be excluded from compensation on Line 1A.  For an expense to be allowable, it must meet the following conditions:

1.      The actual amount paid must be reported. Expenses may not be estimated or guessed.

2.      The expenses must be reasonable. The amount of expense should not be excessive in relation to income, type of expenditure or purpose of expense.

3.      The expenses must be necessary for the employee to do the duties of the job. Costs may not be incurred to make the job more convenient for the employee or to make the job more productive.

4.      Only ordinary expenses are allowable. The expenses must be similar to those incurred by other employees in the same trade or profession.

5.      The expenses must be directly related to the employee’s present trade, business, or profession.

6.      The expenses must be unreimbursed. 

Refer to What are unreimbursed business expenses?

[jason61]

How do i tell turbotax to expense instead of depreciate?  Where is the setting to specify that?  

I get this message to enter Depreciating Method. TurboTax is not providing  any guidance on entries. What is allowable  nor on how to expense instead of depreciate. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Irene2805]

In the PA Schedule UE, to enter your purchases as expenses and not depreciable assets, please follow these steps:

1. While in your PA return, you will come to a screen, Office or Work Area Expenses.  Mark the first 3 boxes if you are taking entering expenses for a home office.  Otherwise click Continue.
2. Continue through the screens until you come to Other Direct Employee Expenses.  [See Screenshot #1, below.]  If appropriate you can enter the expenses in the box for Small Tools and Supplies, or you can enter the cost as a miscellaneous expense on the next screen.
3. On the next screen, Miscellaneous Expenses, click the Yes box.
4. Enter the expense and description on the next screen and click Continue. [Screenshot #2]
5. The next screen will be the Miscellaneous Expense Summary.  If you wish to include additional expenses, click the link Add Another Expense.  [Screenshot #3]
6. When you are finished adding expenses, click Done.

Screenshot #1

Screenshot #2

Screenshot #3

[jason61]

Silly system is not even showing me those screens anymore. I even tried to select "Start Over" and re-do the state filing from scratch, and rather than clearing it out, it just goes back to the edit form.

This is just ridiculous? Why doesn't TurboTax let me go back to these questions. I have gone thru ALL of these four times now. 


Yet I cannot find the way to access the employee expense area.  (Dear TurboTax, it should not be this difficult.) I am really tempted to re-do the whole thing on H&R Block's service and see if it is any better.  I really feel like there are some significant gaps.  =(

[Irene2805]

When you go back into your PA return:

1. On the screen you posted above, click the Update box next to Income and Adjustments.  
2. The second screen should be Unreimbursed Job Expenses. 
3. Click the Yes box.
4. Continue through the screens, entering the requested information about your unreimbursed job expenses.

@jason61

[jason61]

Thank you.
(I had to log-out and re-log in to get it to appear.)

[Ella_496]

https://www.revenue.pa.gov/FormsandPublications/PAPersonalIncomeTaxGuide/Pages/Gross-Compensation.as...

The only thing I that worked for me was putting in "straightline" since the Federal differed from PA. Included the link where I found the info in case anyone else is looking.

Really disappointed that TurboTax doesn't include the options within the process. I had to do like an hour of research to finally come across this answer.