How to Calculate Home Office Deduction When Sharing Apartment Expenses

The home office deduction can be tricky when you're sharing expenses! Here's how you should approach it: For your first question, the 13% is based on physical space, not cost allocation. Even though you pay half the rent, your office is still 13% of the total apartment. The IRS looks at what portion of the home is used exclusively for business, regardless of how you split costs with your partner. As for the parking fees, you're absolutely right to separate them. The $150 for your work truck should NOT be included in your home office calculation. Since your truck is 100% business use, that expense should be deducted separately as a business vehicle expense. For your personal vehicle parking fee of $175, you should exclude that from your home office calculation too. Parking fees aren't considered part of the square footage-based home expenses. When you calculate your actual deduction, you'll take 13% of your portion of the rent ($875) and utilities after removing both parking fees.

After struggling with a similar situation last year, I found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) incredibly helpful for figuring out my home office deduction. I had a similar setup where I was sharing costs with my roommate and wasn't sure how to properly calculate everything. The tool analyzed my lease agreement, expense receipts, and floor plan to determine the right percentage. It even flagged that I wasn't accounting for some eligible utilities that I could've partially deducted. Saved me from leaving money on the table!

I was definitely skeptical about using an online tool for something as complicated as my home office deduction, but after getting frustrated with contradictory advice, I tried taxr.ai. Honestly, it was impressive. The system asked really specific questions about my apartment layout that I hadn't even considered. It helped me properly document my space usage with floor plans and photos, and explained why certain expenses could be partially deducted while others couldn't. My situation was similar - sharing a place with my partner and using one room exclusively for my consulting business. The best part was the detailed explanation of why 13% is still 13% regardless of how you split costs with roommates. I was making the exact same mistake thinking I should double the percentage!

If you're still confused about any aspect of your home office deduction, you might want to speak directly with an IRS representative. I had so many questions last year that couldn't be answered by online research or tax software. After wasting hours on hold, I found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) and watched their demo video (https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c). They got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes when I had previously been unable to get through at all. The agent walked me through exactly how to calculate my home office deduction when sharing expenses, and confirmed I was doing the vehicle expense deduction correctly. Completely worth it for the peace of mind.

I need to publicly eat my words about Claimyr. After being completely skeptical above, I was desperate enough to try it when I couldn't get any clear answers about my home office situation. Not only did I get connected to an actual IRS representative in about 20 minutes, but they were incredibly helpful about my exact situation with a shared apartment and business expenses. The agent confirmed everything about the 13% calculation (it really is based on square footage, not cost splitting) and explained exactly how to handle the parking fees. The peace of mind from getting official guidance directly from the IRS instead of trying to interpret conflicting online advice was absolutely worth it. Sometimes you need to hear it straight from the source.

Don't forget to save all documentation for your home office deduction! My brother got audited last year specifically for his home office deduction. Make sure you have: - Floor plan with measurements - Photos of the office space - Copies of your lease agreement - All utility bills - Documentation showing business use (client meetings, work produced, etc) Also remember you can either take the simplified deduction ($5 per square foot up to 300 sq ft) OR the regular method. Run the numbers both ways to see which is better for your situation.

Anyone know if having a roommate/partner affects eligibility for home office deduction? My tax guy said something about not being able to take the deduction if I share the apartment with someone else, which sounds wrong based on this thread.

I've been in a similar situation with shared apartment expenses, and one thing that helped me was keeping meticulous records from day one. Beyond what Carmen mentioned, I'd also suggest: - Taking photos of your office setup with timestamps - Keeping a log of business activities conducted in the space (even just a simple calendar noting "client calls," "project work," etc.) - Saving email confirmations or receipts for any office furniture/equipment purchases One mistake I made initially was not separating my business and personal use clearly enough. The IRS really emphasizes "exclusive" use - so if you ever use that room for personal activities (like storing personal items, having guests sleep there, etc.), it could jeopardize your deduction. Also, regarding your work truck parking - since you mentioned the actual expenses are higher than standard mileage, make sure you're consistent with your vehicle deduction method throughout the year. You can't switch between actual expenses and standard mileage for the same vehicle in the same tax year. Good luck with your first year taking the deduction! It's definitely worth getting right from the start.