Additional tests for employee use.   If you are an employee and you use a part of your home for business, you may qualify for a deduction for its business use. You must meet the tests discussed above plus: If the use of the home office is merely appropriate and helpful, you cannot deduct expenses for the business use of your home.

To qualify under the exclusive use test, you must use a specific area of your home only for your trade or business. The area used for business can be a room or other separately identifiable space. The space does not need to be marked off by a permanent partition.

You do not meet the requirements of the exclusive use test if you use the area in question both for business and for personal purposes.

To qualify under the regular use test, you must use a specific area of your home for business on a regular basis. Incidental or occasional business use is not regular use. You must consider all facts and circumstances in determining whether your use is on a regular basis.

To qualify under the trade-or-business-use-test, you must use part of your home in connection with a trade or business. If you use your home for a profit-seeking activity that is not a trade or business, you cannot take a deduction for its business use.

You can have more than one business location, including your home, for a single trade or business. To qualify to deduct the expenses for the business use of your home under the principal place of business test, your home must be your principal place of business for that trade or business. To determine whether your home is your principal place of business, you must consider:

Your home office will qualify as your principal place of business if you meet the following requirements.

If, after considering your business locations, your home cannot be identified as your principal place of business, you cannot deduct home office expenses. However, see the later discussions under Place To Meet Patients, Clients, or Customers or Separate Structure for other ways to qualify to deduct home office expenses.

If you meet or deal with patients, clients, or customers in your home in the normal course of your business, even though you also carry on business at another location, you can deduct your expenses for the part of your home used exclusively and regularly for business if you meet both the following tests.

Doctors, dentists, attorneys, and other professionals who maintain offices in their homes generally will meet this requirement.

Using your home for occasional meetings and telephone calls will not qualify you to deduct expenses for the business use of your home.

The part of your home you use exclusively and regularly to meet patients, clients, or customers does not have to be your principal place of business.

You can deduct expenses for a separate free-standing structure, such as a studio, garage, or barn, if you use it exclusively and regularly for your business. The structure does not have to be your principal place of business or a place where you meet patients, clients, or customers.

To find the business percentage, compare the size of the part of your home that you use for business to your whole house. Use the resulting percentage to figure the business part of the expenses for operating your entire home.

You can use any reasonable method to determine the business percentage. The following are two commonly used methods for figuring the percentage.

Use lines 1-7 of Form 8829, or lines 1-3 on the worksheet near the end of this publication, to figure your business percentage.

You cannot deduct expenses for the business use of your home incurred during any part of the year you did not use your home for business purposes. For example, if you begin using part of your home for business on July 1, and you meet all the tests from that date until the end of the year, consider only your expenses for the last half of the year in figuring your allowable deduction.

If your gross income from the business use of your home equals or exceeds your total business expenses (including depreciation), you can deduct all your business expenses related to the use of your home.

If your gross income from the business use of your home is less than your total business expenses, your deduction for certain expenses for the business use of your home is limited.

Your deduction of otherwise nondeductible expenses, such as insurance, utilities, and depreciation (with depreciation taken last), that are allocable to the business, is limited to the gross income from the business use of your home minus the sum of the following.

If you are self-employed, do not include in (2) above your deduction for half of your self-employment tax.

If your home office qualifies as your principal place of business, you can deduct your daily transportation costs between your home and another work location in the same trade or business. For more information on transportation costs, see Publication 463, Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses.

The part of a home operating expense you can use to figure your deduction depends on both of the following.

Table 1, next, describes the types of expenses you may have and the extent to which they are deductible.

Form 8829 and the deduction worksheet (both illustrated near the end of this publication) have separate columns for direct and indirect expenses.

Certain expenses are deductible whether or not you use your home for business. If you qualify to claim business use of the home expenses, use the business percentage of these expenses to figure your total business use of the home deduction. These expenses include the following.

Other expenses are deductible only if you use your home for business. You can use the business percentage of these expenses to figure your total business use of the home deduction. These expenses generally include (but are not limited to) the following.

Adjusted basis defined.   The adjusted basis of your home is generally its cost, plus the cost of any permanent improvements you made to it, minus any casualty losses or depreciation deducted in earlier tax years. For a discussion of adjusted basis, see Publication 551.

Permanent improvements.   A permanent improvement increases the value of property, adds to its life, or gives it a new or different use. Examples of improvements are replacing electric wiring or plumbing, adding a new roof or addition, paneling, or remodeling.

   You must carefully distinguish between repairs and improvements. See Repairs, earlier. You also must keep accurate records of these expenses. These records will help you decide whether an expense is a deductible or capital (added to the basis) expense. However, if you make repairs as part of an extensive remodeling or restoration of your home, the entire job is an improvement.

Adjusting for depreciation deducted in earlier years.   Decrease the basis of your property by the depreciation you deducted, or could have deducted, on your tax returns under the method of depreciation you properly selected. If you took less depreciation than you could have under the method you selected, decrease the basis by the amount you could have taken under that method. If you did not take a depreciation deduction, decrease the basis by the amount you could have deducted.

  If you deducted more depreciation than you should have, decrease your basis by the amount you should have deducted, plus the part of the excess depreciation you deducted that actually decreased your tax liability for any year.

  If you deducted the incorrect amount of depreciation, see How Do You Correct Depreciation Deductions in chapter 1 of Publication 946.

Fair market value defined.   The fair market value of your home is the price at which the property would change hands between a buyer and a seller, neither having to buy or sell, and both having reasonable knowledge of all necessary facts. Sales of similar property, on or about the date you begin using your home for business, may be helpful in figuring the property's fair market value.

If you began using your home for business before 2005, continue to use the same depreciation method you used in past tax years.

If you began using your home for business in 2005, depreciate the business part as nonresidential real property under the modified accelerated cost recovery system (MACRS). Under MACRS, nonresidential real property is depreciated using the straight line method over 39 years. For more information on MACRS and other methods of depreciation, see Publication 946.

To figure the depreciation deduction, you must first figure the part of the cost of your home that can be depreciated (depreciable basis). The depreciable basis is figured by multiplying the percentage of your home used for business by the smaller of the following.

Figuring the deduction.   If you regularly use part of your home for daycare, figure what part is used for daycare, as explained earlier under Business Percentage. If you use that part exclusively for daycare, deduct all the allocable expenses, subject to the deduction limit, as explained earlier.

  If the use of part of your home as a daycare facility is regular, but not exclusive, you must figure what part of available time you actually use it for business. A room that is available for use throughout each business day and that you regularly use in your business is considered to be used for daycare throughout each business day. You do not have to keep records to show the specific hours the area was used for business. You may use the area occasionally for personal reasons. However, a room you use only occasionally for business does not qualify for the deduction.

Meals.   If you provide food for your daycare recipients, do not include the expense as a cost of using your home for business. Claim it as a separate deduction on your Schedule C (Form 1040). You can never deduct the cost of food consumed by you or your family. You can deduct as a business expense 100% of the actual cost of food consumed by your daycare recipients (see Standard meal and snack rates, later, for an optional method for eligible children) and generally only 50% of the cost of food consumed by your employees. However, you can deduct 100% of the cost of food consumed by your employees if its value can be excluded from their wages as a de minimis fringe benefit. For more information on meals that meet these requirements, see Meals in Publication 15-B, Employer's Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits.

  If you deduct the actual cost of food for your daycare business, keep a separate record (with receipts) of your family's food costs.

   Reimbursements you receive from a sponsor under the Child and Adult Food Care Program of the Department of Agriculture are taxable only to the extent they exceed your expenses for food for eligible children. If your reimbursements are more than your expenses for food, show the difference as income in Part I of Schedule C. If your food expenses are greater than the reimbursements, show the difference as an expense in Part V of Schedule C. Do not include payments or expenses for your own children if they are eligible for the program. Follow this procedure even if you receive a Form 1099 reporting a payment from the sponsor.

Standard meal and snack rates.   If you qualify as a family daycare provider, you can use the standard meal and snack rates, instead of actual costs, to compute the deductible cost of meals and snacks provided to eligible children. For these purposes:

  You can compute the deductible cost of each meal and snack you actually purchased and served to an eligible child during the time period you provided family daycare using the standard meal and snack rates shown in Table 3, later. You can use the standard meal and snack rates for a maximum of one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, and three snacks per eligible child per day. If you receive reimbursement for a particular meal or snack, you can deduct only the portion of the applicable standard meal or snack rate that exceeds the amount of the reimbursement.

   You can use either the standard meal and snack rates or actual costs to calculate the deductible cost of food provided to eligible children in the family daycare for any particular tax year. If you choose to use the standard meal and snack rates for a particular tax year, you must use the rates for all your deductible food costs for eligible children during that tax year. However, if you use the standard meal and snack rates in any tax year, you can use actual costs to compute the deductible cost of food in any other tax year.

   If you use the standard meal and snack rates, you must maintain records to substantiate the computation of the total amount deducted for the cost of food provided to eligible children. The records kept should include the name of each child, dates and hours of attendance in the daycare, and the type and quantity of meals and snacks served. This information can be recorded in a log similar to the one shown in Exhibit A, later.

   The standard meal and snack rates include beverages, but do not include non-food supplies used for food preparation, service, or storage, such as containers, paper products, or utensils. These expenses can be claimed as a separate deduction on your Schedule C (Form 1040).

Ownership and use tests.   To claim the exclusion, you must meet the ownership and use tests. This means that during the 5-year period ending on the date of the sale, you met both the following tests.

Business use of your home.   The rules for computing the exclusion for business use of your home vary depending on the facts and circumstances involved. See Business use or rental of home, in Publication 523 for details.

Depreciation.   If you were entitled to take depreciation deductions because you used your home for business, you cannot exclude the part of your gain equal to any depreciation allowed or allowable as a deduction for periods after May 6, 1997. If you can show by adequate records or other evidence that the depreciation deduction allowed was less than the amount allowable, the amount you cannot exclude is the amount allowed.

Basis adjustment.   If you used any part of your home for business, you must adjust the basis of your home for any depreciation that was allowable for its business use, even if you did not claim it. If you took less depreciation than you could have under the method you properly selected, you must decrease the basis by the amount you could have taken under that method. If you took more depreciation than you should have under the method you properly selected, you must decrease the basis by the amount you should have deducted, plus the part of the excess deducted that actually decreased your tax liability for any year. For more information on reducing the basis of your property for depreciation, see Publication 551.

More information.   This section covers only the basic rules for the sale or exchange of your home. For more information, see Publication 523.

If you use certain types of property, called listed property, in your home, special rules apply. Listed property includes computers and related equipment and any property of a type generally used for entertainment, recreation, and amusement (including photographic, phonographic, communication, and video recording equipment).

If you bought certain property during 2005 to use in your business, you can do any one of the following (subject to the limits discussed later).

If you use property in your home office that was used previously for personal purposes, you cannot take a section 179 deduction for the property. You also cannot take a Liberty Zone depreciation allowance for the property. You can depreciate it, however. The method of depreciation you use depends on when you first used the property for personal purposes.

If you began using the property for personal purposes after 1986 and change it to business use in 2005, depreciate the property under MACRS.

The basis for depreciation of property changed from personal to business use is the lesser of the following.

If you began using the property for personal purposes after 1980 and before 1987 and change it to business use in 2005, you generally depreciate the property under the accelerated cost recovery system (ACRS). However, if the depreciation under ACRS is greater in the first year than the depreciation under MACRS, you must depreciate it under MACRS. For information on ACRS, see Publication 534, Depreciating Property Placed in Service Before 1987.

If you began using the property for personal purposes before 1981 and change it to business use in 2005, depreciate the property by the straight line or declining balance method based on salvage value and useful life.

If you are self-employed and file Schedule C (Form 1040), complete and attach Form 8829 to your return.

If you file Schedule F (Form 1040), report your entire deduction for business use of the home (line 32 of the worksheet), up to the deduction limit discussed under Figuring the Deduction, earlier, on line 34 of Schedule F. Enter “Business Use of Home” on the dotted line beside the entry.

As an employee, you must itemize deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040) to claim expenses for the business use of your home and any other employee business expenses. This generally applies to all employees, including outside salespersons. If you are a statutory employee, use Schedule C (Form 1040) to claim the expenses. Follow the instructions given earlier under Self-Employed Persons. The statutory employee box within box 13 on your Form W-2 will be checked if you are a statutory employee.

If you have employee expenses for which you were not reimbursed, report them on Schedule A, line 20. You also generally must complete Form 2106 if either of the following apply.

However, you can use the simpler Form 2106-EZ, instead of Form 2106, if you meet the following requirements.

When your employer pays for your expenses using a reimbursement or allowance arrangement, the payments generally should not be on your Form W-2 if all the following rules for an accountable plan are met.

If you meet the accountable plan rules and your business expenses equal your reimbursement, do not report the reimbursement as income and do not deduct the expenses.

You may be allowed to deduct unreimbursed ordinary and necessary expenses you paid on behalf of the partnership (including qualified expenses for the business use of your home) if you were required to pay these expenses under the partnership agreement.

Use the worksheet on page 24 to figure the deduction for the business use of your home.

Form 4562.   Based on the following facts, John completes Form 4562 as follows:

Part I, lines 1-13.   John began using his home for business in January of this year. He purchased a new computer and filing cabinet to use in his business. The computer, used 100% for business, cost $3,200. The filing cabinet cost $600. John elects to take the section 179 deduction for both items.

  John completes Part I of Form 4562. He enters the cost of both the computer and filing cabinet, $3,800, on line 2 and completes lines 4 and 5. On line 6, he enters a description of each item, its cost, and the cost he elects to expense. Line 11 is the smaller of line 5 ($105,000) or the taxable income from all trades and businesses without regard to the section 179 deduction. Since he has no other business income, he adds line 31 of Schedule C and the amount of the section 179 deduction ($3,800) for a total business income of $27,871. This amount goes on line 11 since it is smaller than $105,000. He enters $3,800 on line 12.

Part III, line 19c.   John converted to business use a desk and chair (furniture) he had purchased in 1998 for personal purposes. In 1998, he paid $1,500 for them. The total fair market value in 2005 is $550. The fair market value is less than the cost, so his depreciable basis is $550.

  Because the furniture is 7-year property under MACRS, John enters $550 in Part III, line 19c, column (c). He completes columns (d) through (f). He uses the MACRS Percentage Table for 5- and 7-Year Property Using Half-Year Convention in this publication or Table A-1 in Publication 946 to find the rate of 14.29% for property placed in service during the first month of the year. He multiplies $550 by 14.29% (.1429) and enters $79 in column (g).

Part III, line 19i.   This is the first year John used his home for business, so he must figure the depreciation on line 19i. On line 19i, column (c), he enters $11,000, the depreciable basis of the business part of his home. He began using his home for business in January. (For a discussion on how he figures his depreciation deduction, see Step 3 under Form 8829, Part II, later.) He enters $271 in column (g).

Part IV, line 22.   John totals the amounts on line 12 and line 19 in column (g) and enters the total on line 22. He enters both the section 179 deduction ($3,800) and the depreciation on the furniture ($79) on line 13 of Schedule C. He enters the depreciation on his home ($271) on Form 8829, line 28.

Schedule C.   John completes Schedule C as follows:

Line 13.   As discussed previously, John enters the amount from Form 4562 for his section 179 deduction ($3,800) and the depreciation deduction for his office furniture ($79) for a total of $3,879.

Line 16b.   This amount is the interest on installment payments for the business assets John uses in his home office.

Line 25.   John had a separate telephone line in his home office that he used only for business. He can deduct $347 for the line.

Lines 28-30.   On line 28, he totals all his expenses other than those for the business use of his home, and then subtracts that total from his gross income. He uses the result on line 29 to figure the deduction limit on his expenses for the business use of his home. He enters that amount on Form 8829, line 8, and then completes the form. He enters the amount of his home office deduction from Form 8829, line 34, on Schedule C, line 30.

Form 8829, Part I.   John uses one room of his home exclusively and regularly to meet clients. In Part I of Form 8829 he shows that, based on the square footage, the room is 10% of the total area of his home.

Form 8829, Part II.   John uses Part II of Form 8829 to figure his allowable home office deduction.

Step 1.   First, he figures the business part of expenses that would be deductible even if he did not use part of his home for business. These expenses ($4,500 deductible mortgage interest and $1,000 real estate taxes) relate to his entire home, so he enters them in column (b) on lines 10 and 11. He then subtracts the $550 business part of these expenses (line 14) from his tentative business profit (line 8). The result, $25,002 on line 15, is the most he can deduct for his other home office expenses.

Step 2.   Next, he figures his deduction for operating expenses. He paid $300 to have his office repainted. He enters this amount on line 18, column (a) because it is a direct expense. All his other expenses ($400 homeowner's insurance, $1,400 roof repairs, and $1,800 gas and electric) relate to his entire home. Therefore, he enters them in column (b) on the appropriate lines. He adds the $300 direct expenses (line 21, column (a)) to the $360 total for indirect expenses (line 22) and enters the total, $660, on line 24. This amount is less than his deduction limit, so he can deduct it in full. The $24,342 balance of his deduction limit (line 26) is the most he can deduct for depreciation.

Step 3.   Next, he figures his allowable depreciation deduction for the business use of his home in Part III of Form 8829. The adjusted basis of his home is $130,000, which is less than the fair market value of $160,000. He figures the value of the land to be $20,000. He subtracts the land value from the adjusted basis. He multiplies the result ($110,000) by the percentage on line 7 to get the depreciable basis of the business part of his home ($11,000).

  He began using the office in January of this year, so he uses the MACRS Percentage Table for 39-Year Nonresidential Real Property in this publication or Table A-7a in Appendix A of Publication 946. The depreciation percentage for the first year of the recovery period for assets placed in service in the first month is 2.461%. His depreciation deduction for 2005 (line 40) is $271 (.02461 × $11,000). He enters that amount in Part II on lines 28 and 30. This is less than the available balance of his deduction limit (line 26), so he can deduct the full amount as depreciation. John also must complete Form 4562 for 2005, so he enters $271 on line 19i, column (g). See Form 4562, earlier.

Step 4.   Finally, he figures his total deduction for his home office by adding together his otherwise deductible expenses (line 14), his operating expenses (line 25), and depreciation (line 31). He enters the result, $1,481, on lines 32 and 34, and on Schedule C, line 30.

  

Partners.   See Partners, under Where to Deduct, earlier, before completing the worksheet.

If you figure the percentage based on area, use lines 1 through 3 to figure the business-use percentage. Enter the percentage on line 3.

You can use any other reasonable method that accurately reflects your business-use percentage. If you operate a daycare facility and you meet the exception to the exclusive use test for part or all of the area you use for business, you must figure the business-use percentage for that area as explained under Daycare Facility, earlier. If you use another method to figure your business percentage, skip lines 1 and 2 and enter the percentage on line 3.

If you file Schedule F, enter your total gross income that is related to the business use of your home. This generally would be the amount on line 11 of Schedule F.

If you are an employee, enter your total wages that are related to the business use of your home.

Enter only the amounts that would be deductible whether or not you used your home for business. In other words, enter only the amounts that would be allowable as itemized deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040).

Include only the part of a casualty loss that exceeds $100 plus 10% of adjusted gross income. If your loss occurred after August 24, 2005, and was the result of Hurricane Katrina, you can include the entire casualty loss. See Publication 4492.

Under column (a), Direct Expenses, enter expenses that benefit only the business part of your home. Under column (b), Indirect Expenses, enter expenses that benefit the entire home. You generally enter 100% of the expense. However, if the business percentage of an indirect expense is different from the percentage on line 3, enter only the business part of the expense on the appropriate line in column (a), and leave that line in column (b) blank.

Multiply your total indirect expenses (line 8, column (b)) by the business percentage from line 3. Enter the result on line 9. Add this amount to the total direct expenses (line 8, column (a)) and enter the total on line 10.

Enter any other business expenses that are not attributable to business use of the home on line 11. For employees, examples include travel, supplies, and business telephone expenses. Farmers generally should enter their total farm expenses before deducting office in the home expenses. Do not enter the deduction for one-half of your self-employment tax. Add the amounts on lines 10 and 11, and enter the total on line 12. Subtract line 12 from line 4, and enter the result on line 13. This is your deduction limit. You use it to determine whether you can deduct any of your other expenses for business use of the home this year. If you cannot, you will carry them over to next year.

If line 13 is zero or less, enter zero. Deduct your expenses for deductible home mortgage interest, real estate taxes, casualty losses, and any business expenses not attributable to use of your home on the appropriate lines of the schedule(s) for Form 1040 as explained earlier under Where To Deduct.

On lines 14 through 18, enter your otherwise nondeductible expenses for the business use of your home. These include utilities, insurance, repairs, and maintenance. If you rent, include the amount paid on line 18. If you file Schedule F, include any part of your home mortgage interest that is more than the limits given in Publication 936. (If you are an employee, do not enter any excess home mortgage interest.) In column (a), enter the expenses that benefit only the business part of your home (direct expenses). In column (b), enter the expenses that benefit the entire home (indirect expenses). Multiply line 19, column (b) by the business-use percentage (line 3) and enter this amount on line 20.

If you claimed a deduction for business use of your home on your 2004 tax return, enter the amount from line 39 of your 2004 worksheet on line 21.

On lines 24 through 29, figure your limit on deductions for excess casualty losses and depreciation.

On line 25, figure the excess casualty loss by multiplying the business use percentage from line 3 by the part of casualty losses that would not be allowable if you did not use your home for business (i.e., the casualty losses in excess of the amount on line 5).

On line 26, enter the depreciation deduction from Part 3.

If you claimed a deduction for business use of your home on your 2004 tax return, enter on line 27 the amount from line 40 of your 2004 worksheet.

On lines 28 and 29, figure your allowable excess casualty losses and depreciation.

On line 30, total all allowable business use of the home deductions.

On line 31, enter the total of the casualty losses shown on lines 10 and 29. Enter the amount from line 31 on line 30 of Form 4684, Section B. See the instructions for Form 4684 for more information on completing that form.

Line 32 is the total (other than casualty losses) allowable as a deduction for business use of your home. If you file Schedule F (Form 1040), enter this amount on line 34, Other expenses, of Schedule F and enter “Business Use of Home” on the line beside the entry. Do not add the specific expenses into other line totals of Part II of Schedule F.

If you are an employee or partner, see Where To Deduct, earlier, for information on how to claim the deduction.

Figure your depreciation deduction on lines 33 through 38. On line 33, enter the smaller of the adjusted basis or the fair market value of the property at the time you first used it for business. Do not adjust this amount for changes in basis or value after that date. Allocate the basis between the land and the building on lines 34 and 35. You cannot depreciate any part of the land. On line 37, enter the correct percentage for the current year from the tables in Publication 946. Multiply this percentage by the business basis to get the depreciation deduction. Enter this figure on lines 38 and 26. Complete and attach Form 4562 to your return if this is the first year you used your home, or an improvement or addition to your home, in business.

Complete these lines to figure the expenses that must be carried forward to next year.

Contacting your Taxpayer Advocate.   If you have attempted to deal with an IRS problem unsuccessfully, you should contact your Taxpayer Advocate.

  The Taxpayer Advocate independently represents your interests and concerns within the IRS by protecting your rights and resolving problems that have not been fixed through normal channels. While Taxpayer Advocates cannot change the tax law or make a technical tax decision, they can clear up problems that resulted from previous contacts and ensure that your case is given a complete and impartial review.

  To contact your Taxpayer Advocate:

  For more information, see Publication 1546, How To Get Help With Unresolved Tax Problems (now available in Chinese, Korean, Russian, and Vietnamese, in addition to English and Spanish).

Free tax services.   To find out what services are available, get Publication 910, IRS Guide to Free Tax Services. It contains a list of free tax publications and an index of tax topics. It also describes other free tax information services, including tax education and assistance programs and a list of TeleTax topics.