There are rules about what qualifies as a home office, what qualifies as a deductible expense and what method should be used to calculate the deduction assuming those rules and qualifications are met.

This guide, and the accompanying checklist, from TechRepublic Premium will help you navigate the twists and turns of those regulations to arrive at a correct, clear, explainable and defensible home office deduction amount.

From the guide:

QUALIFIED EXPENSES

For the purposes of the home office deduction, expenses for the business use of a home office normally include the business portion of real estate taxes, mortgage interest, rent, casualty losses, utilities, insurance, depreciation, maintenance and repairs. In general, you are not allowed to deduct expenses for the parts of your home not used for business. For example, expenses for lawn care or painting a room not used for business don’t qualify. Separate and exclusively used business expenses such as broadband connections and smartphones will also qualify as deductible expenses.

The download comprises a seven-page PDF and spreadsheet.

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TIME SAVED: It took 12 hours of writing, editing and research to create this content.