At 5:54 PM 8/20/96, Mike McNally wrote:
Sure, but clearly that's not exclusively the case. (Amazingly enough to some might be the fact that my for-work e-mail volume far exceeds my not-for-work volume.) Hopefully I haven't brought too much shame to my employer.
In any case, with the IRS it's often less a matter of common sense than what they happen to decide is The Law. Witness the changes in laws about what constitutes a "home office". Currently, if you're (let's say) a freelance plumber who maintains a legitimate office ...
Caveat: I'm not a defender of income taxes, of course. Nor am I a defender of the IRS. However, on the "home office" situation, most of the examples I encounter, in talking to friends, are clearly scams to save a thousand bucks (or less) on their tax returns. Most of my friends who try to deduct a room in their house because they've put their computer there are clearly not using "20%" or "25%" or whatever of their house as a business. For those who really do actually use a room in their home for building things, for meeting with clients, for operating a home business of some sort, then I think the IRS will have no problems allowing it. (If the subject even comes up, in an audit. There are some reports that attempting to declare a home office increases ones chances of being audited....) As the saying goes, consult a competent expert. A few books detail the expected amount of work that must be done in a "home office," and whether one is likely to qualify. As one data point, I have derived nearly all of my income over the past 10 years from investments. And yet the "work" needed to be done on my computer is such a tiny fraction of my overall use of it that I don't even try to write off my various computers as "investment expenses." Your mileage may vary. And I certainly have not tried to write off a room in my house as a home office. (As it happens, I need few of the "office" resources, so I have my PowerMac and 17" monitor sitting beside my recliner in the family room of my house, where I can lie back, log in, and bliss out in cyberspace.) --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."