TurboTax does not allow home office deduction ...

[BrittanyS]

The first part of the code has been removed because the software thinks it is a phone number.  Can you reenter with ... between the numbers?  For example, 1..1..1...1...1...1..-3..1..2..3..9..7..8..6

@Grubster 

[Grubster]

@BrittanyS 

4...3...1...1...7...1...1...8...5-3...1...2...3...9...7...9...8...

Ticket # 1...5...4...4...1...3...9...7...0...7. - This case I called in was closed for some reason as well. 

[Grubster]

@BrittanyS Sorry, I edited my post, I had a typo, let me know today please!

[mronufrak]

I have Premier online and I'm having the same problem as everyone else and my entries are all correct.  Please fix this TurboTax, it's clearly a malfunction.

[danielghenke]

I am also having this problem with the desktop version of premier. Can you please fix this? I have spent so much time trying to fix it on my end. 

[mronufrak]

Dear AnnetteB6-

Here is my token:  118617889575499424

I believe that I completed all home office information properly.  I am using TurboTax Premier, which seems to be the same version others are using who are also having the same problem, and I live in NJ.   Like other commenters, my tax form shows a profit, but TurboTax is not pulling the right information to determine whether a home office deduction is appropriate.  Others said the standard deduction was the problem, so I itemized my expenses.  I moved mid year, and I itemized for each location.  Turbotax gave me a deduction for part of the year, and not for the other part of the year.   Very strange.  I temporarily overrode the cell in line 8 of Form 8829 which was the problem but I haven't submitted my taxes yet.  I'm hoping for a fix.

@Bachatera 

@JonD2 

@LookingToThrive 

@garym4 

@mightysween 

[mronufrak]

Well done!  This fix worked for me!  Thank you so much!!!!

[AnnetteB6]

As was mentioned in earlier posts, the Simplified Home Office calculation is operating correctly in every diagnostic file that has been examined.  Every problem has been due to a missing piece of information that was not entered into the input screens.  Until an issue can be confirmed, there will be no report submitted to the developers because so far there is nothing to fix.

As you go through the Home Office section of your Schedule C, you should several questions, first to qualify that you can claim a home office, then the details about the home office, and then the actual expenses related to the home office.  It is the details about the home office that is probably causing the issue with your return.  Look for the following questions, each on a separate input screen:

• When did you start using this home office?
• Do you use space in this home to store inventory or product samples?
• How big is this home office?
• Business conducted in home office
• How did you enter home office expenses for 2023?

The question on the page titled Business conducted in home office is the key to the simplified office expense calculation.  If you have not entered a value on that page, or if you do not see that page as you go through the Home Office section, then you will not be able to use the simplified method because your business will not show a profit even if there is one.

Please revisit the Home Office section of your return and look for the Business conducted in home office page.  If this page simply does not come up for you, but all of the others shown above did, please respond with which version of TurboTax you are using (online, desktop, Mac and Deluxe, Premier, Home and Business) so that we may investigate this further.  

@Grubster An examination of your diagnostic file showed the problem discussed above.  There was no entry on the Business conducted in home office page.

@danielghenke  

@mronufrak 

[bonk]

TTax Deluxe Desktop Version.  The interview never asks what % of business is conducted in home office for the simplified deduction.  It is also never implied by the question that are asked.  Therefore, the business use % is assumed to be blank (zero) by the program which disallows the simplified home office deduction.  It is a clear error in the TTax interview process.  Until TTax fixes this, the only way around it is to go into forms and manually enter 100% into 8829 Part II item B so the program can accurately calculate simplifed office in home.

[mronufrak]

Thank you for this information.  This was my fix as well.

[Grubster]

@AnnetteB6 

I'm using Turbo Tax Deluxe for Mac. I just installed the updates, still not fixed... I added some screenshots below. 

Under schedule C.  Not sure what you are saying about a page title Business Conducted in Home Office.  I follow the interview and when I get to Business Expenses, I select Home Office Expenses, add my home and answer all the questions correctly.  

1. First I select I own the home AND I do ALL this business from Home
2. Then I set Square Footage
3. Then I enter in the square footage.
4. Then I answer when I started using this office and then it asks in 2024 how many months did I use the office at least 15 days of the month.  I selected "12". 
5. Then I choose the Simplified Deduction
6. Then it says I'm not getting a deception because my Net Profit is Zero or Less. 

[mronufrak]

@AnnetteB6 

Annette,

I feel like TT has a serious case of denial.  There are may people complaining about the very same problem.  It's a valid problem and your responses aren't helpful at all.  It would be more helpful for you to escalate the failure of TT Premier to port over the right information to the forms.   I've found 3 cases of this problem so far.

Regarding the home office problem, I answered every question regarding my home office and  I checked and rechecked it all several times.  The problem with the downloaded version of TT Premier is that it doesn't transfer information from my responses to the tax forms.  I had to open the forms and manually input the 100% use of my office into form 8829 (even though I did respond 100% to the prompt) in order to get the Home office deduction.  This is NOT okay and I don't know how you could possibly not see this, even though tons of people are reporting this.  Thank God for other users' feedback or I'd still be stuck on this.

Also, Premier totally messed up my QBI deduction.   Again it failed to import the fact that I identified my business as a 100% Qualified Business and it gave me a $24 QBI deduction instead of $3,700.   I had to go into  Schedule C to manually input that 100% of the income from my business is a Qualified Business Income and only then did I get the correct deduction.  I can't imagine how many people are losing money because of this.

Lastly, TT did not prompt me about health insurance or Schedule 1195-A AT ALL.  There was no prompt associated with anything I entered personally or business-wise that asked me to input 1195-A information.  Even worse, there was no prompt when I entered my business info which asked if I had health insurance expenses that were paid from my business income.  I could have missed a HUGE deduction.  I just happened to come across my form 1195-A and wondered why I wasn't prompted.  I did a search in TT and got the link that took me to the right page to enter this information.  This is another $5,500 in deductions I would have missed if I relied exclusively on TT.

I have used TT for close to 20 years.  I've never had so many problems with it.   It's supposed to be reliable and the whole point of buying it is to save me time and money.   If it's taking me hours to run down these problems (which costs me money), and I still can't rely upon the result, why am I buying this???

@Grubster 

@danielghenke  

@bonk 

@Bachatera 

@JonD2 

@LookingToThrive 

@garym4 

@mightysween 

[mronufrak]

Hi!

I had the same problem and @bonk gave advice that helped me.

He said, "until TTax fixes this, the only way around it is to go into forms and manually enter 100% into 8829 Part II item B so the program can accurately calculate simplified office in home."

I opened the forms by clicking on the top right, found form 8829 under schedule C in the table that appears on the left, and entered 100% for use of my office.  Then you click  "step by step" at the top right part of your screen to return to the prompt format.   I hope this helps you too.

[Grubster]

@AnnetteB6 Ok, I think this fixed it!  I manually followed the instructions and entered 100% here. Thank you @bonk 

[LolaMerle]

I agree about the denial. I use TurboTax Deluxe - Mac desktop version. I've had the same problem and have called Turbotax support 3 times now. They just create and "ticket" and then say to wait for an update. Annette's responses keep saying the program is working the way it should, but she's not addressing the fact that there is NO PLACE in the interview that is titled "Business Conducted in Home Office" and asks for the percentage of time you spend, so you can't enter the percentage that way. The ONLY way is to go to form 8829 page 2 and put 100% in line 8, as numerous people here have mentioned. This made a difference of $400.00 in tax I owed to the IRS! I almost gave up trying to figure it out and am so glad I found this discussion so other users could tell us how to fix it. TurboTax certainly wasn't helpful at all, and that's just not right.