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Write offs for a home based business

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Lan

Junior Member
I own and operate an internet site out of my home and I was told that I could write off a percentage of my home mortgage as it's an operating cost associated with my business. I would assume I could write off things like my internet usage, computer costs, legal fees etc (please correct me if I am wrong). I don't know the first thing about write offs, but it would be a tremendous help financially if I could do so.

Has anyone had experience with this?

Thank you in advance :)
 


Lan

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? California

I did some searching and noticed that ^^ may be a requirement. I apologize in advance if this has been covered many times, but I am not used to this interface and I wasn't able to find anything under 'write offs' in the search feature.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
In order to write off business use of your home, some specific things have to be in place. You have to have an area of the home that is used exclusively for business and no other purpose.

Then based on square footage, you can write of a portion of your mortgage or rent and utilitites. Property taxes can also be included.

Computers, internet usage, phone lines etc. are all trickier. Anything that is used exclusively for the business can be written off. Anything that is also personal use may not be able to be written off.

Get yourself a sit down consult with a local tax pro to go over your situation.
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
This is a pretty common question for the IRS, they have a topic (brief description here):

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc509.html

Which leads you to their more lengthy publication on Business Use of the Home:

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p587/index.html
 

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