Can I write off my ohone bill and utilities if i work from home for another company?
indrep33 asked:
I work form home taking customer service calls for a company. Since I work from home, can I write off my phone bill and ComEd bill, or would that be as useless as writing off gas for a regular job that you drive to?
ELNORA
I work form home taking customer service calls for a company. Since I work from home, can I write off my phone bill and ComEd bill, or would that be as useless as writing off gas for a regular job that you drive to?
ELNORA
March 27th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
no. not unless you use those phones and electricity for that purpose. You used to be able to but nowadays if your audited they will want to see a seperate room for your office… as in just used for work maybe even seperate from the house. Has to have a door kind of thing.
March 30th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
you can only write off the calls for the business, not your whole phone bill. if you can figure what utilities are just for the business you can take those. but keep really good receipts in case they question you
April 1st, 2008 at 3:28 am
It depends.
There is a section of the tax law that states you can’t deduct the main phone costs.
Now….
Are you an “employee” of the company which happens Not to have an office for you and “requires” you to work from home (hence your question)?
If likely, then you may qualify for the OIH (office in home) deduction.
For the deduction, take either the total sq. ftg. of your house or the number of rooms. Divide the sq. ftg of your house or the 1 room, respectively, by the total amounts to get the bus. %. This bus. % is what you’d use t deduct certain expenses related to the house such as mort. int., r/e tax, hs. insurance and utility expenses.
If you are an employee, you’d file Form 2106 and claim it there which flows through to Form A.
Now the catch… Do you itemize? If you do, then the deduction amount is limited to 2% of your AGI! If you do not, then the deduction doesn’t mean anything!
If you’re an “independent contractor”, then you’d file Schedule C and Form 8829 to claim the deduction.
This can get complicated and beyond the scope of the tax forum!
You should seek out a local tax professional to assist you!
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
If you use a portion of your home exclusively for business use, then yes. To take rent deduction, you must figure out the percentage use of your home for your office. Also you can deduct a percentage use of the Internet expenses, water and electricity expenses for home office.
Read
Also if are a W2 employee, then these expenses are itemized deduction. Read:
April 4th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
You can very possibly deduct a portion of your phone bill, the portion used for business calls.
As for utilities, you can only deduct part of them if you qualify for a home office deduction. To do that, you must use a portion of your home regularly and exclusively for business.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
You can write off the portion allocated to the business. Unreimbursed business expenses are subject to 2% of agi and you must be qualified to itemize
April 9th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
The monthly charge for a first phone line into your house is never deductible. If you can assign specific charges you paid for specific calls, (e.g. toll calls), you may deduct those expenses. If you have a second line into your house that you use for business, you can deduct that.
You can deduct phone charges on the second line, or specific toll charges on your first line, regardless of whether you have an office in home or not.
If you have an area of your house that is used regularly and exclusively for your business, you may qualify for an office in home. If so, then a portion of the operating expenses of your home, such as electricity, may be deducted. The amount that is deducted is usually based on the percentage of the square footage of your home that is used for business.
If you receive a 1099MISC for your services (which is most likely), these expenses are deducted on Schedule C. If you receive a W-2 for your services, these expenses are deducted on Schedule A.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
yes you can sweetie just make sure you keep all stubs of the bill and phone calls and give them to your accountant. and have he or her file,
good luck.