Is a home office tax deductible?
Yes, if you are self-employed and the space is used regularly and only for the business. Employees can’t take it.
The rule
The office has to be used regularly and exclusively for the business, and be your principal place of business: where you do the admin with no other fixed place to do it, or where you meet clients.
There are two ways to work it out. The simplified method is $5 a square foot, up to 300 square feet. The regular method is the office’s share of what the home costs, rent or mortgage interest, utilities, insurance and repairs, and owners add depreciation.
You can switch between them from year to year, so work out both.
A 220 square foot office in a New York apartment is $687.60 a month under the regular method.
Priced at 36¢ on the dollar, the rate of a $95,000 sole proprietor in California. Work out yours.
- Where it goes
- Schedule C line 30, business use of your home
- What to keep
- The office and home measurements, a photo of the space, and, for the regular method, the year’s rent or mortgage, utility and insurance bills.
- Watch for
- Neither method can create a loss. The regular method carries the excess forward to next year; the simplified method loses it.
Checked on September 25, 2026 against Publication 587, Business Use of Your Home and Instructions for Form 8829. An estimate for your records, not tax advice.
By the kind of work
What else each of these can deduct, and what they tend to miss.
See it on every receipt.
Snap it and Reimburse files it on the right Schedule C line, takes the deductible share and shows what it puts back.