Home Office

[AL1986]

My wife switched jobs halfway through the year and worked remotely out of her home office for both jobs.   She was required to keep a home office and did not have access to an office with her employer.  When entering the expenses, do I need to split the taxes, interest, utilities, etch in half when entering them on Turbotax?

[xmasbaby0]

If your spouse was a W-2 employee you cannot deduct anything for a home office on your federal tax return.

Sorry---W-2 employees cannot deduct job-related expenses on a federal return.  Job-related expenses were eliminated as a federal deduction for W-2 employees by the tax laws that changed for 2018 and beyond.  Your state tax laws might be different in AL, AR, CA, HI, MN, NY or PA.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/4482873-which-federal-tax-deductions-have-been-suspended-by-tax-re...

[AL1986]

Thank you.  I realize she is not eligible for the federal return, but we do live in PA and Turbo Tax State edition pulls the information from the federal section of the return on Home Offices for the state deduction.  That is why I was looking for that info.  

[JosephS1]

Yes, PA will allow the home office deduction and also yes, you must allocate the expenses for the office compared to the house as a whole.  The best way to do this is based on square footage of living space for the house and the amount used for the office.

You will calculate and allocate the expenses on form PA-40-UE.  This can be done manually and entered on the UE form.  The following screenshots from TurboTax Home and Business desktop edition illustrates what you will enter and where.

Entering the Business Use Percentage will automatically allocate the totals entered to the home office.

@AL1986