IRS simplifies home office deduction

February 10th, 2014 → 9:35 am @ Carol

 

Every once in a while the IRS makes life simpler for taxpayers!

In 2013 the IRS simplified the Business Use of the Home deduction.

Now you can calculate the business use of your home office at $5 per square foot.

That’s a whole lot easier than the old method of adding up utilities, depreciation, mortgage interest etc. But you can still use the old method on Form 8829  if it brings you a bigger deduction.

You’ll find the simplified deduction on Line  of Schedule C .

 

Here’s the worksheet they mention in Line 30:

 

Of course, the IRS reminds us that this simplified method “does not change the criteria for who may claim a home office deduction. It merely simplifies the calculation and record keeping requirements of the allowable deduction.”

Here’s the IRS page with details.

 

I calculated my deduction both ways:

Simplified method: $5 x 169 sq ft = $845

Regular Method: total deduction=  $844

I’m using the simplified method. How about you?

Carol Topp, CPA

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Tags: business deduction, home office, home office tax deduction, professional writer, tax, tax deduction, writer