Expensing Your Home Office and Cell Phone

This one can be a little tricky, so you need to double-check with your tax preparer what is best for you, but if you run your business from home or even just have a home office in addition to your business location, you probably should be deducting for it.

The exact amount can be done in a couple of ways. One is to add up all your actual monthly expenses for your house and divide the square footage of the office space. For example, let’s say that all your home expenses add up to $1,500 (rent, utilities, insurance, etc.) and your office is 10% of your home, so the office would be $150 per month.

The other option is to consider how much it would cost you to rent that much space somewhere else. $300? $500? Whatever that reasonable amount is can be your other option. So if your office is 8’x10′ and in your area you would have to page $400 per month for an office of that size somewhere, then consider $400 per month your limit.

Your Cell Phone is another expense many people don’t take. If 75% of the use of your phone is for business, then you can expense 75% of the monthly bill. You don’t have to track it exactly, just be reasonable.

Both the office expense and cell phone expense should be considered reimbursement expenses for the business and are therefore and expense for the business and not taxable for you personally. Yes, this means you can just cut a check each month to cover the office and cell phone reimbursement.