You can be on Entrepreneur’s cover!

Is Your Home Office Deduction a Red Flag? With more people working from home, the IRS has become surprisingly benevolent.

By Bonnie Lee

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

About half of the business owners I talk to think that if they deduct their home office on their income tax return they will raise a red flag with the IRS. "I don't want to be audited!" is the battle cry.

This may have been a big concern in the 1990s, but it's not today. Here's a little history to enlighten you.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Nadir Soliman lost his home office deduction during an audit of his income tax return. He fought the decision all the way to the Supreme Court and lost. The IRS had determined that Dr. Soliman, an anesthesiologist, was not using his home office as his principal place of business. Dr. Soliman claimed that none of the three hospitals that subcontracted to him provided office space. He therefore had to perform his administrative duties, do his medical research, and consult with other medical professionals out of his home office, which only qualified under the exclusive-use test. The office he used in his three-bedroom apartment was not used for any other purpose. But he had failed the other test--principal place of business. Obviously, the hospital operating theatre was his principal place of business.

It didn't matter that Dr. Soliman could have rented an office space near the hospital and that would have been deductible all day long. In light of this, the ruling was crazy, but it stuck. Until about 1999, that is.

The impact was disastrous for entrepreneurs. Unless you performed all of your duties from your home office, you could not deduct it. That meant that pretty much everyone was excluded from the deduction. Imagine that! Building contractors, landscapers, handymen, appraisers, realtors and so many others were no longer entitled to the deduction. And if they attempted to take it, the deduction was rejected, possibly along with other deductions that fell to an auditor's scrutiny.

In 1999, the IRS came to its senses and decided to retract their illogical thinking on this matter. The home office was back! By 2010 there are many more people who have become self-employed using home offices, and the IRS no longer automatically looks askance at the deduction.

So What Are the Rules?
First of all, the space must be used exclusively as a home office. If the room you use is multi-purpose--it's a guest room as well as a home office--then you can only count the area of the room that is 100 percent devoted to business use. The area must also be used on a regular basis, be your principal place of business or be a place to meet or deal with patients, clients or customers in the normal course of your business. This means that you do not have a second location where most of your business activity takes place. In other words, you don't have a retail store or a second office downtown and you just bring home bits of paperwork now and again. If that's the case, you do not have a bona fide home office. You can, however, deduct a portion of your home for storage of inventory, equipment, etc., even if you have another main business location. Please note that there are special rules for child care providers.

IRS Publication 587 contains all the rules and regulations you need to know to properly deduct your home office. Stay tuned, I will discuss these rules in my next column.

Bonnie Lee is the founder of Taxpertise located in Sonoma, Calif., a firm providing bookkeeping, payroll services, QuickBooks Training, income tax preparation and tax problem resolution including audits, offers in compromise and other representation issues. She is also the author of Taxpertise: The Complete Book of Dirty Little Secrets and Tax Deductions for Small Business the IRS Doesn’t Want You to Know (Entrepreneur Press, 2009).

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Business News

'Wildly Inappropriate': Woman Says She Was Denied a Job Because She Didn't Wear Makeup During the Interview

Melissa Weaver was applying for a VP of HR job at a tech company via video.

Business Solutions

Streamline In-House Developer Work with This $40 Program

Microsoft Visual Studio features tools to help programmers code faster and build complex projects across different languages and platforms.

Marketing

You'll Never Succeed in a Complex Market Unless You Try These Strategies

Complex industries offer opportunities in market needs, potential profitability and expansion opportunities — but the key to being successful is developing and supporting a clearly differentiated value proposition that separates your organization from potential competitors. Here's how to do it.

Thought Leaders

These Are the Five Attributes of Highly Successful and Happy People

If you'd like to be happier or more successful this year, then ask yourself if you're truly exuding these five attributes. The happiest and most successful people I know execute on these game-changers exceptionally well.

Side Hustle

I Started a Semi-Passive Side Hustle That Earns $33,000 a Week on Amazon: 'Selling There Is a No-Brainer'

Dr. Jenny Woo wanted to create a product that would help people connect, and it turned out to be a lucrative one.

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.