I recently made improvements on my home office. Turbo Tax says that those improvements should not be entered on the repairs line when claiming my home office deduction. Where should the expenses for improvements on my home office be entered?
Was it an improvement or a repair? A repair maintains the property in as-is condition. An improvement, also called a "betterment", increases the value of the property, or extends the useful life of the property. For a home office, an improvement might apply to the entire home (a new furnace) or it might apply only to the space used for the home office (new energy efficient windows, for example). Improvements are added to the cost basis of your property and then depreciated over time, the amount of depreciation depends on whether the improvement is allocated 100% to the home office or on a percentage basis.
Did you have an improvement or a repair, and did it cover the entire property or just the office? There should be a place to enter improvements separate from repairs, but I haven't used that section of the program, someone else can tell you where it is.
It was an improvement to the home office space alone, though it could almost be called a repair because it involved tearing out and replacing old drywall and insulation, as well as repairing and insulating a floor and adding heat.
@VolvoGirl can you tell this user where to report improvements for a home office?
rather than making new question, I'm adding to this question on related matter:
How should we answer the TT question "Did you make improvements to a building you used for this business?"
The limit for this item is the lesser of 2% of value of the structure or $10,000. If we are claiming home office, should we/ can we enter information here (eg roof repairs, etc.) ? I can't navigate back to the screen... it just showed up during interview for business expenses. Very, very confusing.