Two Home Offices

[OrchardEquineRe]

My daughter is self employed working 100% from home office in our home. This is her second year filing her own income tax return.

All of her living expenses are paid by my husband & I.
I file MFJ return w/Sch F.
I conduct my business for my separate business out of my own separate office.

I'm familiar with Home Office deduction, filing on my Sch F taxes for over 10 years.

I understand I need to calculate her office size & use that percentage of the home to determine percentage of utilities etc.

Is it as simple as that? We each have our own offices in the house and we file separate returns using each office's square footage to determine percentage of utililities to deduct?

Thank you.

[MWHessel]

She really can not take the deduction unless she pays part of the home office expenses to you.  You are the one paying the expenses so you get to deduct that portion of the home expenses that relate to your office from your income.  Her income does not have any office expenses offsetting it.  You could make her office part of your office and rent her the space at market value.  You would recognize her rent to you as income and offset the combined offices on your tax return and she could take the cost of her portion of the space (what she pays you) as rent expense thus reducing her taxable income.  Sounds convoluted but it is your house and your expenses not hers.  

[PaulaM]

MWHessel stated the situation perfectly above. She simply can't take a home office deduction for expenses not incurred.