Home Office Deduction

With a growing number of business owners now working from home, many may qualify for the home office deduction, also known as the deduction for business use of a home.

Usually, a business owner must use a room or other identifiable portion of the home exclusively for business on a regular basis. Exceptions to the exclusive-use standard apply to home-based daycare facilities and to portions of the home used for business storage, where the home is the only fixed location for that business.

 

Home-Office Deduction If You Operate as a Corporation

Question

What does the IRS audit manual say about the home office for an individual who operates his or her business as a corporation?

Answer

You will be interested in two boilerplate explanations from the Internal Revenue Manual that examiners use to explain why the IRS is denying the home-office deduction:1

1. We [the IRS] have disallowed your deductions for office-in-the-home expense because you have not established that it was for the convenience of your employer. Voluntary, vocational, or incidental use of part of your home in connection with your employment does not entitle you to a business deduction.

2. If you rent all or part of your residence to your employer and use the rented portion when performing services for the employer, you cannot deduct home office expenses.

If you want to avoid the disallowances above and achieve a full deduction for the home office, follow these directions:

· Make your corporation write you a letter stating that you must find office space and that space may be in your home.

· Do not rent the office in your home to your corporation.

· Have your corporation reimburse your home office expenses to you as an employee business expense.

· Do not report reimbursed employee expenses as taxable income.

Your corporation gets the deduction for its reimbursement of your employee expenses. But with this deduction comes the need for proof. Make sure you submit proof to your corporation that backs up the deduction—for example:

· Receipts for expenses

· Photos that show the office set up for exclusive business use

· A logbook, for at least a sample period, that shows use of the office for more than 10 hours a week.

Planning tip.

Complete IRS Form 8829 showing your home-office expenses for the year.

Do not file this form with your tax return.  Instead, attach the form to an expense report that you give to your corporation as the basis for corporate reimbursement to you for the home-office expenses.

Contact our Office for further information. 

SRC:  1    

IRM 4.10.10-2 Standard Explanations for Report Writing, last reviewed or updated Sep. 10, 2021, paragraphs 4809, 4816. 

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/for-national-small-business-week-plan-now-to-take-advantage-of-tax-benefits-for-2022-enhanced-deduction-for-business-meals-home-office-deduction-and-more

 

 

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Health Savings Accounts: The Ultimate Retirement Account

Health Savings Accounts: The Ultimate Retirement Account Looking to save for retirement? The first account you should open and fund is not an IRA (regular or Roth) or 401(k). If you qualify, your first retirement account should be a Health Savings Account (HSA). Don’t...
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Tax Reform Provides New 20% Deduction

Tax Reform Provides New 20% Deduction The new 2018 Section 199A tax deduction that you can claim on your IRS Form 1040 is a big deal. There are many rules (all new, of course), but your odds as a business owner of benefiting from this new deduction are excellent....

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Home Office with More Than One Business

Home Office with More Than One Business The office-in-the-home deduction produces good to excellent tax savings by turning personal house expenses into business deductions. Additionally, it enables you to deduct big vehicle expenses by eliminating nondeductible...

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Rental Property as a Business Yields Big Benefits

DECEMBER, 2017 Rental Property as a Business Yields Big Benefits If your rental property activity meets the definition of a trade or business activity, then your rentals produce the best possible tax benefits. In general, you report your rental properties on Schedule...

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Tax Reform and Rental Real Estate Deductions

DECEMBER, 2017 Tax Reform and Rental Real Estate Deductions Two scary words in tax reform are “fairness” and “simplification.” In most cases, this combination raises your taxes and makes the law more complex.  As you likely know, tax reform is in the air again, and it...

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Cashing Out Real Estate Profits without Section 1031

Cashing Out Real Estate Profits without Section 1031 Paying taxes on the sale of your real estate is voluntary. You do not need to volunteer. Whenever you can, avoid the outright taxable cash sale of investment property. To avoid taxes while you build your portfolio...

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