Architectural Designs

Home Office Deduction in Rental with Roommates?

For a period of 2010, I rented a room in a large, warehouse style apartment. I shared the apartment with five other people. I used a portion of my room as a home-office for my freelance web design work. I would like to write off a portion of my rent as a home office deduction, as it was used exclusively and regularly for my work. The question I have is whether I need to factor in the common areas of the apartment in my determination of the percentage of my rental I can write off. It was approximately 15% of my room, but only a small percentage of the overall apartment. If I need to factor in the entire apartment, do I find out the common space, then divide by the number of tenants, then add that to my room to figure out my 'share' of the apartment? I have read over the irs.com website and cannot find any guidance regarding shared living spaces and home office deduction. In response to Landlord: The IRS explicitly states that Renters may deduct for Home Office. Judy, thanks for the response. I am a professional and understand the tax law, I am more interested in this particular nuance re: common areas. FYI - I do have a separate laptop for personal use. As I stated, I used a corner of my room exclusively for my work. A portion of my bills that I wrote at the desk - electricity, gas, rent, will also be deductible from my taxes. According to IRS.gov, I do not need to have a partition or any physical separation. I have a floor plan of the room, and this will be a good excuse to visit some old friends for measurements of the apartment as a whole. I am not that put off by a little bit of math, but I am invested in claiming money that is mine.

Public Comments

1. You can't find it because rent does not count, it is only if you own the place, and then you depreciate it.
2. In this one room of the house you rented, you had a portion that was your office, presumably a desk with a computer sitting on it? And you had a different computer somewhere else in the house that you used for personal use, and never used that one for personal use, and never sat at that desk to write checks for bills or anything? Lotsa luck convincing the IRS of that, that your use of the area was EXCLUSIVELY for business. Home office deductions are a highly audited area. If you think you can justify that (I hope you have pictures, and the room was blocked off with dividers), yes, you'd have to factor in the space of the common areas divided by the number of tenants. By the time you do all that, I'd guess your "home office deduction" won't be worth the aggravation.