home office tax deductible? Forum

[TTTooKewl]

Hi all. I'm not asking for any legal advice, just nonlegal opinions. Is a biglaw associate's home office, assuming an exclusive space for doing work, tax deductible? On a rental?

[patogordo]

my nonlegal opinion, having not considered the relevant law and having no legal expertise whatsoever, is i doubt it.

[patogordo]

upon further nonlegal review of the nonlaw, this sounds bad


Your business use must be for the convenience of your employer, and
You must not rent any part of your home to your employer and use the rented portion to perform services as an employee for that employer.
If the use of the home office is merely appropriate and helpful, you cannot deduct expenses for the business use of your home.

[MrProhibition]

Hi all. I'm not asking for any legal advice, just nonlegal opinions. Is a biglaw associate's home office, assuming an exclusive space for doing work, tax deductible? On a rental?

Looks like someone did not listen during bar prep and/or did not take TAX.

[ZyzzBrah]

its a great way to get audited

[LeDique]

upon further nonlegal review of the nonlaw, this sounds bad


Your business use must be for the convenience of your employer, and
You must not rent any part of your home to your employer and use the rented portion to perform services as an employee for that employer.
If the use of the home office is merely appropriate and helpful, you cannot deduct expenses for the business use of your home.

so im supposed to rent part of my apartment to my firm?? please advise

[patogordo]

upon further nonlegal review of the nonlaw, this sounds bad


Your business use must be for the convenience of your employer, and
You must not rent any part of your home to your employer and use the rented portion to perform services as an employee for that employer.
If the use of the home office is merely appropriate and helpful, you cannot deduct expenses for the business use of your home.

so im supposed to rent part of my apartment to my firm?? please advise

i can't advise you of that, sir. but yes.


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[LeDique]

upon further nonlegal review of the nonlaw, this sounds bad


Your business use must be for the convenience of your employer, and
You must not rent any part of your home to your employer and use the rented portion to perform services as an employee for that employer.
If the use of the home office is merely appropriate and helpful, you cannot deduct expenses for the business use of your home.

so im supposed to rent part of my apartment to my firm?? please advise

i can't advise you of that, sir. but yes.


The information presented in this post is provided "as is" without representation or warranty of any kind -- as to suitability, reliability, applicability, merchantability, fitness, noninfringement, result, outcome or any other matter. I do not represent or warrant that such information is or will be always up-to-date, complete, or accurate. Any representation or warranty that might be otherwise implied is expressly disclaimed.

You agree that I am not liable to you or others, in any way or for any damages of any kind or under any theory, arising from this post, or your access to or use of or reliance on the information in or through this post, including but not limited to liability or damages under contract or tort theories or any damages caused by viruses contained within electronic files of this post or any quoting site, regardless of prior notice to me.

This is a nice disclaimer you have here, but I have the express written consent of Major League Baseball to rebroadcast, retransmission, and otherwise use pictures and accounts of this post.

[Pikappraider]

its a great way to get audited

Yup. This is how to avoid audit 101, don't write off your home "office"

[patogordo]

i'm going to create a firefox plugin that sends an email to the NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL/etc requesting express written consent whenever you post a picture in a sports thread

[BVest]

upon further nonlegal review of the nonlaw, this sounds bad


Your business use must be for the convenience of your employer, and
You must not rent any part of your home to your employer and use the rented portion to perform services as an employee for that employer.
If the use of the home office is merely appropriate and helpful, you cannot deduct expenses for the business use of your home.

so im supposed to rent part of my apartment to my firm?? please advise

i can't advise you of that, sir. but yes.

If you rent it to your employer, then it could not possibly be deductible because you've incurred no unreimbursed employee expenses.

For useful tax information, see the IRS site. They have some great publications. I highly recommend Publication 529.

[Johann]

its a great way to get audited

Yup. This is how to avoid audit 101, don't write off your home "office"

is this cross listed with how to piss away money 101. you should ddef deduct a home office.

[patogordo]

upon further nonlegal review of the nonlaw, this sounds bad


Your business use must be for the convenience of your employer, and
You must not rent any part of your home to your employer and use the rented portion to perform services as an employee for that employer.
If the use of the home office is merely appropriate and helpful, you cannot deduct expenses for the business use of your home.

so im supposed to rent part of my apartment to my firm?? please advise

i can't advise you of that, sir. but yes.

If you rent it to your employer, then it could not possibly be deductible because you've incurred no unreimbursed employee expenses.

For useful tax information, see the IRS site. They have some great publications. I highly recommend Publication 529.

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fatduck

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[Johann]

circular 230 went to the wayside this past summer.

[patogordo]

circular 230 went to the wayside this past summer.

thanks for the heads-up

/s/
fatduck

Internal Revenue Service Circular 230 Disclosure Disclosure: In compliance with IRS requirements, you are on notice that any disclaimers about IRS requirements are no longer applicable. Any disclaimers about IRS requirements (including Internal Revenue Service Circular 230 Disclosure(s)) is/are not intended to be read or used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of interpreting the contents of this post to be in compliance with Internal Revenue Service Circular 230 and/or any other Internal Revenue Service requirements.

Internal Revenue Service Circular 230 Disclosure: In compliance with IRS requirements, you are on notice that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.
This information contained in this post and any attachments to or quotes of this post are intended only for the exclusive use of the designated recipient(s). It may contain confidential or proprietary information and may be subject to the attorney-client privilege or other confidentiality protections. If you are not the intended recipient, or the person responsible for delivering the post to the intended recipient, be advised you have received this post in error and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing, or copying is strictly prohibited. Thank you.

[patogordo]

EXCUSE ME SIR PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THE IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS FROM MY POST

PLEASE DESTROY YOUR POST AND UNDERSTAND THAT ANY FURTHER QUOTING IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED

Done. I printed a copy and shredded it.

[banjo]

Big firms expect employees to answer emails / word process at all times of the day and night, but a deduction for a small home office is going to be a red flag? That sucks. Intuitively, the home office deduction should address exactly this kind of problem.

[Johann]

Big firms expect employees to answer emails / word process at all times of the day and night, but a deduction for a small home office is going to be a red flag? That sucks. Intuitively, the home office deduction should address exactly this kind of problem.

You're gonna be fine. Just claim what you actually use as a home office exclusively as a home office. I've done it for 3 years now with no problem.

[patogordo]

seems like your firm would have to have a pretty lenient face time policy for your home office to be your principal place of business

[Johann]

I think you're creating a higher standard than the tax law.

[AReasonableMan]

Not advising anything but you're very unlikely to be audited even with the home office. If you're bringing in under 100k a year as a business the odds are astronomically low you will be audited. However, home offices do increase the likelihood somewhat. Unregistered businesses also increase the likelihood.

[masque du pantsu]

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p587/ar ... 1000226292

Scroll down to Figure A. For a biglaw associate, unless you have some sort of special "work from home" arrangement, it's going to be tough for you. I suspect that a lot of people who are claiming the deduction are getting away with it but are not legally entitled to it, so to speak.

[AReasonableMan]

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p587/ar ... 1000226292

Scroll down to Figure A. For a biglaw associate, unless you have some sort of special "work from home" arrangement, it's going to be tough for you. I suspect that a lot of people who are claiming the deduction are getting away with it but are not legally entitled to it, so to speak.

I know nothing about tax law, but I met with an accountant one year. He said if a portion was just for a business like storing inventory and not used for personal purposes then it could be tax deductible from a calculating profits standpoint. I took that to mean that a study that you also are working on your novel in would not be deductible.

Nonetheless, you definitely want to meet with an accountant considering your asking this question shows you know very little about taxes. If hanging a shingle is your livelihood then at some point it becomes likelier that you'll be audited. Being audited sucks for any business, but in your case it is worse because it can also lead to you being disbarred. Your business is not only contingent on making money, but also on not being disbarred. If you spent this much time and money to get a bar license it's probably worth spending some additional money on figuring out how taxes work. The complexity of doing taxes is one of the things that can make working for a big company better than earning the same income being your own boss, because you have to stress about stuff you otherwise almost never think about.