Entering Home Office Expenses Instructions are Confusing - Can someone clarify?

[mrfkl]

When entering home office expenses, there are two data entry pages:

1) The "Tell us about your home expenses" page

and

2) The "Enter your home office expenses" page

Why is the number 2) page required? Aren't the expenses from page 1) above allocated to the home office based on square footage?

The instructions on both pages are not clear. Could someone please clarify? Bear with me as i explain the mixup:

Page 1) asks for "your total expenses for the home" - Since they are saying "total" I imagine this would include all expenses for the home INCLUDING expenses for the home office, is this correct?

But a note on Page 2) reads "Do not enter any expenses already entered on previous page", referring to page 1)

But if page 1 includes "ALL" expenses for the home and we should not include any expenses from page 1) on page 2), that means that Page 2 should all be zeros. But this would not make sense, so I'm looking for clarification.

What exactly goes on page 2? And can I enter a subset of expenses from page 1 into page 2? Say I paid $1000 worth of insurance for the whole house (page 1), and the home office square footage is 10% of the whole house, should I enter say $100 for insurance on page 2)? or what?

Thank you

[cpruitt235]

Without going into the detail of what Turbotax wants on the various pages, have you considered taking a simplified home deduction? You don't have to keep track of all your home expenses other than square feet.  The value of the home office deduction with the simplified method is the square footage of your home office multiplied by $5. However, the maximum deduction is $1,500 because you can only deduct up to 300 square feet.

[mrfkl]

I considered it but prefer to enter actual expenses. Hoping enough people enter expenses in this forum that someone can help clarify. Thanks!

[DawnC]

Can you post a screenshot (without any personal info:)?   Are you trying to take the home office deduction on Schedule C?   Employee business expenses are not deductible for tax years 2018-2025.  

If you are using actual expenses, you first determine the % of home office space for the entire home, then TurboTax will apply that percentage to your allowable expenses.   See this article for more details - it covers the standard and actual expense methods.