The prescribed rate is $5 per square foot with a maximum of 300 square feet. If the office measures 150 square feet, for example, then the deduction would be $750 (150 x $5). The space must still be dedicated to business activities.
If you're a W-2 worker — meaning your employer withholds taxes from your paychecks — you can't take the home office deduction for 2023. However, freelance and contract workers with income reported via 1099-NEC may qualify.
The simplified option has a rate of $5 a square foot for business use of the home. The maximum size for this option is 300 square feet. The maximum deduction under this method is $1,500. When using the regular method, deductions for a home office are based on the percentage of the home devoted to business use.
You can claim a percentage of expenses such as rent, mortgage interest, utilities, insurance, and repairs. Depreciation is also an allowable expense for a home that you own. For example, if your office is 250 square feet and your home is 1,000 square feet, you'd deduct 25% of your allowable expenses (250/1,000 = 0.25).
To qualify to claim expenses for the business use of your home, you must meet the following test. First your use of the business part of your home must be exclusively used for your business. Second it must be regular. And third it must be for your business.
Internet costs are no longer a type of remote worker tax deduction and are only available to self-employed individuals. A portion of your internet can be a home business tax deduction. Utilities are tax-deductible if you work from home.
Are there tax deductions available to remote or hybrid employees for expenses related to working from home? Unfortunately, employees are not eligible for the home office deduction, regardless if they are remote full or part-time.
Although there may have been some merit to this advice in the past, changes in the tax rules in the late 1990s made it easier for people who work out of their homes to qualify for these write-offs. So if you qualify, by all means, take it.
For the home office and the items in it to be deductible, it has to be a part of your home that you use regularly and exclusively for work, and your home office must be your principal workplace or you must regularly perform administrative or management tasks there.
Your cellphone as a small business deduction
If you're self-employed and you use your cellphone for business, you can claim the business use of your phone as a tax deduction. If 30 percent of your time on the phone is spent on business, you could legitimately deduct 30 percent of your phone bill.
Some taxpayers have asked if homeowner's insurance is tax deductible. Here's the skinny: You can only deduct homeowner's insurance premiums paid on rental properties. Homeowner's insurance is never tax deductible your main home.
Is health insurance tax-deductible? Health insurance premiums are deductible on federal taxes, in some cases, as these monthly payments are classified as medical expenses. Generally, if you pay for medical insurance on your own, you can deduct the amount from your taxes.
After an inflation adjustment, the 2023 standard deduction increases to $13,850 for single filers and married couples filing separately and to $20,800 for single heads of household, who are generally unmarried with one or more dependents. For married couples filing jointly, the standard deduction rises to $27,700.
Only those who are self-employed or own a business and use a vehicle for business purposes may claim a tax deduction for car loan interest. If you are an employee of someone else's business, you cannot claim this deduction.
If you itemize, you can deduct a part of your medical and dental expenses, and amounts you paid for certain taxes, interest, contributions, and other expenses. You can also deduct certain casualty and theft losses.
For tax years 2018 through 2025, tax reform has eliminated the itemized deduction for employee business expenses. Thus, employees may not claim a home office deduction for these years.
You Must Use Your Home Office Exclusively for Business
If you use part of your home—such as a room or studio—as your business office, but you also use that space for personal purposes, you won't qualify for the home office deduction.
Deducting rent on taxes is not permitted by the IRS. However, if you use the property for your trade or business, you may be able to deduct a portion of the rent from your taxes. The amount you can deduct is based the how many square feet of the property is used for your business.
If your home office is small, you'll likely benefit from the simplified method. The calculations are less complex, and you're likely to see a slightly larger deduction by claiming $5 per square foot. An exception might be if you live in a high-cost area where mortgage and rent payments are higher.
The Simplified Method requires only knowing the square footage of the area used for business, while the longer method requires the taxpayer to calculate and allocate actual expenses. The Simplified Option doesn't change the rules for who may claim a home office deduction.
For example, if your home office is one-tenth of the square footage of your house, you can deduct 10% of the cost of your mortgage interest or rent, utilities (electric, water and gas) and homeowners insurance. You can also deduct 10% of other whole-house expenses, such as cleaning and exterminator fees.
It's very similar to deducting computer expenses: you can only write off your business-use percentage. That means that, if you use your phone for work 60% of the time, you'd be able to write off 60% of your phone bill.
Generally, a smart watch like an Apple Watch is considered a private expense and not deductible. However, if you require some of the smart watch's functions as an essential part of your employment activities, you may be able to claim a deduction for it.
While you may have heard at some point that Social Security is no longer taxable after 70 or some other age, this isn't the case. In reality, Social Security is taxed at any age if your income exceeds a certain level.
In general, you can deduct the mortgage interest you paid during the tax year on the first $750,000 of your mortgage debt for your primary home or a second home. If you are married filing separately, the limit drops to $375,000.