Can I still claim home office deduction with a Murphy Bed installed?

You're asking a good question that comes up fairly often! The IRS requires that a home office be used "regularly and exclusively" for business to qualify for the deduction. The key word here is "exclusively" - which means the space can't be used for other purposes. When you add a Murphy bed that gets used even occasionally for guests, you're technically using the space for dual purposes, which breaks the exclusivity requirement. However, there are a couple of approaches you might consider: 1. You could calculate the deduction for the specific months when the bed isn't used at all. So if your relatives stay for 2 weeks, you might lose the deduction for that entire month, but could still claim it for the other 11 months. 2. Another option is to physically divide the room with a partition and only claim the portion that's exclusively used for business. This needs to be a clear division - not just an imaginary line.

After struggling with a similar home office situation last year, I found this amazing tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me figure out exactly what I could claim. I uploaded photos of my office space and some of my receipts for office furniture, and their AI analyzed everything and showed me exactly what percentage I could claim based on IRS guidelines. It even spotted a couple deductions I was missing related to my home office expenses! Their system is super helpful for scenarios like yours with the Murphy bed because it looks at the actual IRS regulations and court cases to give you specific guidance. Their recommendations include how to document your usage properly to support your deduction if you ever get audited.

I was skeptical about taxr.ai at first, but I decided to try it for my home office situation. I have a similar setup - I use a room for my freelance design work but also have a futon for occasional guests. The tool actually walked me through exactly what portion of the room I could still claim and how to document it properly. They showed me that I could section off 70% of the room exclusively for business use and only use the other 30% for the occasional guest. Following their advice, I took measurements, drew up a floor plan, took photos of the clear separation, and kept a log of when I had guests stay. Thanks to that documentation, I was able to confidently claim a partial home office deduction and saved about $1,200 on my taxes. Definitely worth checking out if you're dealing with a multi-use space.

If you're struggling to get clear answers about your home office deduction, you might want to call the IRS directly. That's what I tried to do, but kept hitting ridiculous wait times (2+ hours!) until I found https://claimyr.com. They have this service where they wait on hold with the IRS for you and call you back when an actual human picks up! You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I used it to get a definitive answer about my own home office situation. The IRS agent I spoke with was actually really helpful and explained exactly how I needed to document my space usage to keep my deduction. Saved me hours of frustration and uncertainty.

I have to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment, I decided to try it myself since I had some questions about my rental property deductions that I couldn't get answered anywhere else. The service actually worked exactly as described. I entered my number, they called me back about 75 minutes later with an IRS agent on the line. The agent confirmed they were from the IRS and answered all my questions about my specific situation. What would have been a 2+ hour wait on my end turned into me just getting a call when an agent was available. For anyone dealing with complex tax questions like this Murphy bed situation, getting the official word directly from the IRS saved me from potentially making a costly mistake on my taxes. Definitely not a scam as I initially thought!

Here's another option I don't think anyone has mentioned yet - you could take the simplified home office deduction instead of the regular method. With the simplified option, you get $5 per square foot up to 300 square feet ($1,500 max). The advantage is you don't have to worry about the exclusive use requirement in quite the same way. You just need to use the space regularly for business. This might be a better option if your situation is complicated and you don't want to deal with the stricter requirements of the regular method.

My wife and I had the exact same situation! We solved it by putting up a room divider/bookshelf that physically separated the office area from the Murphy bed area. We made sure to take pictures of the setup and measured exactly what percentage of the room was exclusively used for business. We've been claiming the home office deduction for 3 years this way with no problems. Just make sure the divider is substantial and fixed in place - not something you move around regularly. And only claim the square footage of the office portion.

One thing to keep in mind is that the IRS has been pretty strict about the "exclusive use" requirement in recent audits. I work as a tax preparer, and I've seen clients get into trouble when they tried to claim spaces that had any dual use, even occasional. If you do decide to go with the physical division approach that others have mentioned, make sure you document everything thoroughly - photos of the divider from multiple angles, measurements of each section, receipts for the divider itself, and maybe even a simple floor plan sketch. The key is showing that there's a clear, permanent separation between your office space and the area with the Murphy bed. Also consider whether the numbers actually work in your favor. If you're only going to be able to claim 60-70% of the room after installing the bed and divider, calculate whether that partial deduction is still worth the hassle compared to just using the simplified method for a smaller but guaranteed deduction.