Using  home office to meet customers

Deducting home office expenses

If you meet with patients, clients, or customers in a home office, you can deduct home office expenses. The home office does not have to be your principal place of business. You can conduct business at another location, and your home office can be a satellite office. However, if you use your home office only to make or receive phone calls with patients, clients, and customers, you do not meet this home office expenses deduction test.

While making or receiving phone calls can arguably be viewed as dealing with patients, clients, or customers as part of your home business activities, the IRS will not view it as such.

Home office expenses deduction even if you have another office

This home office deduction test allows professionals, attorneys, doctors, accountants, architects, and others, to deduct home office expenses. Even though these professionals often have another office, they can still use a home office and deduct related home office expenses.

The meeting or dealing with clients and others must be more than occasional. To qualify for home office deduction, it must be on a regular basis. However, the home office must be used exclusively for business. You cannot use it for personal activities during the time when it is not used for business.

Example

An attorney with an office in the city has a den in her home in the suburbs that she uses to meet with clients on weekends and in the evenings. If the den is also used by her family for recreation, then it cannot be treated as a home office because it fails the exclusive use test. However, if it is used only for regularly meeting with her clients, home office expenses are deductible.