Primary Home Depreciation for 2025 Tax Return - Am I Eligible?

Thanks for explaining that! So I can't depreciate my primary residence at all, even though it's losing value over time? That's disappointing. But I'm still confused about my husband's situation - how would he calculate and claim the depreciation for his home office portion? Would he use Form 8829?

Your primary residence may lose value over time, but for tax purposes, depreciation is specifically designed for business or investment assets - not personal residences. Personal homes aren't considered "used up" in generating income the way business assets are. For your husband's home office, yes, he would use Form 8829 (Expenses for Business Use of Your Home) if he's filing Schedule C. He'll need to calculate the percentage of the home used exclusively for business by dividing the square footage of the office by the total square footage of the home. This percentage can be applied to many expenses, including depreciation. He'll enter the business percentage of your home on line 7 of Form 8829, and the form will guide him through the depreciation calculation.

This sounds interesting but how exactly does it work? Does it just tell you what forms to fill out or does it actually help with the calculations? I'm using H&R Block this year and wondering if this would be better for my situation since I have a home office too.

Hmm, isn't this just the same info you could get from a regular tax preparer? I'm skeptical these online tools actually know the nuances of tax law. What made this better than just talking to an accountant?

It does both - identifies the right forms and helps with calculations. The tool asks questions about your specific situation and then provides customized guidance. For home office depreciation, it calculated exactly what percentage of my home qualified and the precise depreciation amount based on the acquisition cost minus land value. It integrates with tax software like H&R Block, but gives more detailed analysis on complex situations than the software alone. What made it better than an accountant for me was the instant access and detailed explanation of each calculation. Rather than just getting a number from my accountant, I actually understood why certain parts of my home qualified and others didn't. It showed the exact IRS guidelines being applied to my situation, which gave me more confidence.

Wait how does this actually work? I thought it was impossible to get through to the IRS especially during tax season. Do they have some special connection or something?

This sounds like BS honestly. Nobody can just magically get through the IRS phone lines. They're notoriously understaffed and backlogged. If this service actually worked, everyone would be using it. What's the catch?

They use a technology that navigates the IRS phone system and waits on hold for you. When they reach a live agent, they call you and connect you directly. It's not a "special connection" - they're just handling the hold time so you don't have to. There's no BS - it's simply a service that does the waiting for you. The IRS is definitely understaffed, which is exactly why this service exists. The catch is that you're paying someone else to handle the frustrating part of waiting on hold. For me, it was worth it because I had specific questions about home office depreciation that only an IRS agent could answer with certainty for my situation.

Whoa I had no idea about the "recapture" thing! What exactly does that mean? Would we have to pay back all the tax savings from the depreciation when we sell the house?

You don't exactly "pay back" the tax savings, but the amount you depreciated gets taxed when you sell. For example, if you depreciated $20,000 of your home office over the years, that $20,000 would be subject to depreciation recapture tax (typically at 25%) when you sell, even if the rest of your home sale qualifies for the capital gains exclusion. So you'd pay around $5,000 in recapture tax on that $20,000 of depreciation. The benefit is that you got tax deductions spread over many years, which usually outweighs this future tax. This is why proper record-keeping is crucial - you need to track all the depreciation you claim to calculate this correctly when you eventually sell.

In TurboTax, you enter it through the business income section under Schedule C. When you get to the expenses part, there's a specific section for "Business use of home." It'll ask for the total square footage of your home and the square footage used exclusively for business. Then it will walk you through either the simplified method (standard $5 per sq ft up to 300 sq ft) or the regular method where you enter actual expenses including depreciation.