Business Use of Home

[Maria]

Hello,

I have another tricky situation. My client hires three independent contractors. One lives in another city. In order to avoid driving 4 hours each day she lives in my client's house two nights a week, since she only works three days a week.

The 2nd independent contractor is from another state. She works about 10 days a month for my client and she lives in one room when she works for her.

The 3rd independent contractor is from another state also and she lives there about 7 days a month. She has a dog and the dog uses the laundry room where it is empty.

I would like to know if my client could claim business use of home for all three independent contractors and the dog. My client already has a room for home office and the garage for storage. If she claims the three (or four) rooms do I have to do some sort of prorated calculation since the three (or four) rooms are not being used in a regular basis.

Thanks a lot for your help, as always,

Maria

[KJ Judd]

Are you saying all the rooms are exclusive business use? No one ever goes in there if not used by the independent contractors? Plus the rules for home office are exclusive and regular use.

How would you argue that a dog, a personal pet, would be business use?

I think you're reaching on this one.