As regular readers know, I have a home-based business, this blog. This last year I had a significant amount of income from it, and I try to reduce my taxable income as much as possible by finding legitimate deductions. One of the deductions I looked very closely into this year was the home office deduction. The way this deduction works is that you take all the expenses of your home, such as mortgage interest, real estate taxes, repairs, utilities, carpet cleaning etc and multiply them by a fraction. The numerator of the fraction is the square footage of the home office, and the denominator is the square footage of the entire home. For any utilities, furniture, or other stuff specifically used in the office, you get 100% of the cost as a deduction. You also get to factor in some depreciation on the home (although this may be recaptured when you sell the home.)
How Much Is It Worth?
All those expenses added up to over $20K (half of which was mortgage interest) in my case. Even when you multiply that amount by my relatively small fraction (2.54%), it still adds up to about $500, plus $300 in depreciation. So that would mean I wouldn't have to pay taxes on about $800 of my blog income. Multiply that by 28% (federal marginal rate), plus 5% (state marginal rate) plus 2.9% (self-employment tax) and it's like putting $287 in my pocket. So why did I choose not to claim that deduction?
The Three Rules
In order to qualify for this deduction, you must pass three tests:
1) Principal place of your business. In the case of this blog, I pass this test. I certainly don't have any other place where I conduct any significant percentage of this business.
2) Regularly used. Given that this blog gets updated at least 3 times a week, I certainly pass this test.
3) Exclusive use. This means that the square footage I'm claiming for a home office isn't used for anything else. Uh oh. This one is a problem. We have an office/library in the house. It contains books (only some of which are related to my business), files (only some of which are related to my business), a desk and computer (used also for personal reasons by my wife and kids), and even the occasional forgotten toy. I considered putting my official “home office” in two other areas of my home: a small nook in the basement that is used for almost nothing and the biggest room in the house- a large area in the basement currently strewn with toys. But both of these spaces also failed the exclusive use test since they were used for non-business stuff during 2012.
Why I'm Not Taking The Deduction
I decided not to take the deduction this year for three reasons. First, the home office deduction, for obvious reasons, is a big audit red flag. It would take me far longer to prepare for and go through an audit than to make the $287 that this deduction saves me.
Second, I don't actually qualify for it. Sure, I could fake it to the IRS. If they ask for a picture of the office I could take a few books out, make sure no toys are on the ground, take the picture, send it to the IRS auditor, and put all the stuff back. Or if heaven forbid they decided to drive out to see the office I could clean it up before they showed up. It wouldn't be that hard. I'm sure hundreds of thousands of taxpayers across the country are doing just that. However, my perspective on taxes is that I'm willing to pay every dollar I legally owe, but I'm not leaving a tip. I legally owe this tax, so I'm going to pay it. If my perspective on taxes were to pay as little as I could get away with, I can think of a lot of other ways to reduce my tax burden by far more than $287.
Last, it's a bit of a pain in the butt to round up all your costs (and keep records on them in case of an audit.) If you're not getting a reasonably sized deduction, it just isn't worth the hassle, especially when you factor in the audit risk.
Will I Take It Next Year?
As I finished up my 2012 taxes recently, I got to thinking that maybe we should make some changes in how we use the rooms in our house so we can qualify for this deduction next year. Better yet, even increase the square footage of the home office area. But the truth is the family gets far more than $267 worth of enjoyment out of being able to use our library/office throughout the year and if I even suggested they couldn't use it I'd have a rebellion on my hands. Now the big room downstairs that is currently strewn with random toys…that might be a different question. That could be worth up to $1000 if I kept the kids out and started calling it my office. Or even the little nook. If I threw the mattress down in the big toy room when folks came to stay, then I could easily make the nook an exclusively used space. Of course, then I'd have to go down in the basement regularly, and as my 3 year old will tell you, “It's SCARY down there!”
Do you have a home business? Are you claiming the home office deduction? If not, why not?
My set-up is similar to yours and I don’t take the deduction either. I run my advisor business from home (helps keep clients’ fees lower and my profits better). My office isn’t exclusively used for my business and don’t see it as a legitimate deduction. I pass the first two criteria easily, but fail on the third.
In regards to the “Will I Take It Next Year?”… the rules for the home office deduction have changed substantially for 2013, and now include a flat “safe harbor” provision that makes claiming the deduction much easier.
i assume u deduct your internet at least to some extent?
Of course.
I take the deduction, as I qualify. There are so many red flags used by the irs that 1 more really doesnt make a difference for me. If I were worried about them and stopped taking all of those red flag deductions, the numbers would add up quickly.
If you qualify, it is rightfully your money. Why give it to the irs?
I agree. But also consider how much you would pay to avoid an audit? $10 a year? $100 a year? If the size of the deduction is tiny compared to the likelihood of an audit from taking it, then perhaps it isn’t worth it.
My home office deduction saves me well over $1000 per year. I haven’t been audited after multiple years. Assuming I get audited every 5-6 years (generous), the time involved in an audit saves me $5000+ after investing that money. Definitely worth it.
Just to give an example straight from IRS.gov that is qualified for home office deduction for a physician.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p587/ar02.html#en_US_2012_publink1000226292
“Example 3. Paul is a self-employed anesthesiologist. He spends the majority of his time administering anesthesia and postoperative care in three local hospitals. One of the hospitals provides him with a small shared office where he could conduct administrative or management activities.
Paul very rarely uses the office the hospital provides. He uses a room in his home that he has converted to an office. He uses this room exclusively and regularly to conduct all the following activities.
Contacting patients, surgeons, and hospitals regarding scheduling.
Preparing for treatments and presentations.
Maintaining billing records and patient logs.
Satisfying continuing medical education requirements.
Reading medical journals and books.
Paul’s home office qualifies as his principal place of business for deducting expenses for its use. He conducts administrative or management activities for his business as an anesthesiologist there and he has no other fixed location where he conducts substantial administrative or management activities for this business. His choice to use his home office instead of the one provided by the hospital does not disqualify his home office from being his principal place of business. His performance of substantial nonadministrative or nonmanagement activities at fixed locations outside his home also does not disqualify his home office from being his principal place of business. He meets all the qualifications, including principal place of business, so he can deduct expenses (to the extent of the deduction limit, explained later) for the business use of his home.”
Thanks for posting that. I hadn’t seen that specific example.
Also I believe this is what Dangerman above is referring to as “flat safe harboring” provision.
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Simplified-Option-for-Claiming-Home-Office-Deduction-Starting-This-Year
It’s nice to have it simplified, but the main issues are still there:
“Current restrictions on the home office deduction, such as the requirement that a home office must be used regularly and exclusively for business and the limit tied to the income derived from the particular business, still apply under the new option. “
I really like this post. It’s great to hear someone apply two of the criteria I generally rely on – “is saving this money actually legit even beyond the risk of getting caught / everyone’s doing it?” and “is saving this money worth the stress / hassle?” Thanks for the thoughtful commentary on a topic that applies to so many of us!
Does any ER doc claim home office deduction here (not for blogs, but for pure clinical ER work) and if so, is that legal? I know some who do and I’ve read that there was a precedent where IRS sued against an ER doc for this exact type of situation and won. Any thoughts??
I haven’t read the IRS ruling, but you know what you have to prove to use the home office deduction- regular and exclusive use of the space. My problem is I don’t have exclusive space. If you have an area of your house that you’re willing to not use for ANYTHING but “ER doc home office stuff” then knock yourself out.
I am a pediatrician and I’ve been doing telemedicine full time since 2014. Not exclusively. I’d like to hear from physicians that spend 4-6 hours a day in their home office ( actual office that no other family member enters) on actual revenue generating work as I do. Any doc’s out there doing this besides me?
I spend a lot of time at home working, but no dedicated office space (yet) other than the bedroom we converted to a podcasting/videocasting studio.
But if you use the office exclusively and regularly for work, you can take the deduction.