Insight

Your home office expenses may be tax deductible

Your home office expenses may be tax deductible | Tax Planning | WCS | Baltimore, MD

Technology has made it easier to work from home so lots of people now commute each morning to an office down the hall. However, just because you have a home office space doesn’t mean you can deduct expenses associated with it.

Regularly and exclusively

In order to be deductible for 2019 and 2020, you must be self-employed and the space must be used regularly (not just occasionally) and exclusively for business purposes. If, for example, your home office is also a guest bedroom or your children do their homework there, you can’t deduct the expenses associated with the space.

Two options

If you qualify, the home office deduction can be a valuable tax break. There are two options for the deduction:

  • Write off a portion of your mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, utilities and certain other expenses, as well as the depreciation allocable to the office space. This requires calculating, allocating and substantiating actual expenses.
  • Take the “safe harbor” deduction. Only one simple calculation is necessary: $5 times the number of square feet of the office space. The safe harbor deduction is capped at $1,500 per year, based on a maximum of 300 square feet.

Changes through 2025

Under prior tax law, if you were an employee (as opposed to self-employed), you could deduct unreimbursed home office expenses as employee business expenses, subject to a floor of 2% of adjusted gross income (AGI) for all your miscellaneous expenses. To qualify under prior law, a home office had to be used for the “convenience” of your employer.

Unfortunately, the TCJA suspends the deduction for miscellaneous expenses through 2025. Without further action from Congress, employees won’t be able to benefit from this tax break for a while. However, deductions are still often available to self-employed taxpayers.

If, however, you’re self-employed, you can deduct eligible home office expenses against your self-employment income. Therefore, the deduction will still be available to you through 2025.

More requirements

Be aware that we’ve covered only a few of the requirements here. We can help you determine if you’re eligible for a home office deduction and, if so, establish the appropriate method for getting the biggest possible deduction.

© 2019

Related Insights

Maryland’s Proposed Business-to-Business Tax: A Direct Hit on Small Businesses | business consulting and accounting services in Baltimore county | Weyrich, Cronin & Sorra

Management Advisory Services & Business Consulting

Maryland’s Proposed Business-to-Business Tax: A Direct Hit on Small Businesses

Maryland lawmakers are considering a 2.5% sales tax on business-to-business (B2B) services, which could significantly impact small businesses…
Taming the tax tangle if you’re retiring soon | tax accountants in alexandria | Weyrich, Cronin & Sorra

Tax Prep, Planning & Strategy

Taming the tax tangle if you’re retiring soon

Retirement is often viewed as an opportunity to travel, spend time with family or simply enjoy the fruits of a long career. Yet the transition…
Lost and found: Regaining your nonprofit’s tax-exempt status | business consulting firms in dc | Weyrich, Cronin & Sorra

Non-Profits

Lost and found: Regaining your nonprofit’s tax-exempt status

The IRS regularly revokes the tax-exempt status of not-for-profits — mostly for failing to file annual information returns. Losing your exempt…

Connect with us

Use the form below to send us an email. WCS responds directly to all inquiries and general questions within 24 hours of posting.

This contact form is deactivated because you refused to accept Google reCaptcha service which is necessary to validate any messages sent by the form.