Home Office Listed Property

[Bees Knees]

So my question is since I meet with customers in my home office and do 100% of my business from there could I still deduct my home office as a business?

The place to meet with clients test is not an exception to the exclusive use test. The place to meet with clients test is an exception to the principal place of business test. For example, say you had a main office down town where you do most of your work, but once or twice a week you take work home and meet a few clients in your home office. The fact that your home office is not your principal place of business is disregarded here because you use it to meet clients. But the office still has to be used exclusively for business in order to qualify.

The two exceptions to the exclusive use test are the storage of inventory and day care use.

[Unregistered]

Thanks guys for clearing this up. The notion that someone's kid could go into the home office and play computer games during the daytime, and that 20% of the loaded software could be personal, should not by itself disqualify the home office, but I do understand the reasoning behind the answers given by Gene V and Bees Knees. They may in fact be reflecting the IRS position, but it's not fair.

And by the way, the original "hoary-headed swain" referred to was none of than "J G" - one of our more respected members. I hope no one takes offense to the occasional use of allegory and fun. Wait 'til Black Bart comes out of hibernation!

Regards, Ron J.

I can remember two court cases on this "exclusive use of home office" problem. One, a woman admitted that occaisionally she read personal magazines in her home office. The court disallowed the deduction. Another taxpayer lost his home office deduction because he could view the TV through the office door to the family room.

Do you keep personal records on Quicken or in drawers in your home office? Tsk tsk, you lose. The courts have been very strict coming down on the side of the IRS.

Another greybeard . . .

[Gretel]

Crazy

Just waiting for the IRS to apply similar rules to normal offices and catch me playing card games once in a while because that's all I am able to do sometimes.

Looks like they expecting machines instead of human beings in home offices. What's wrong watching TV in your home office for relaxation, people in "normal" offices to this all the time.