Question

I believe that I qualify for that “office in the home” deduction that eliminates commuting mileage. If so, this would create some excellent deductions for me.

My CPA says no.

Here are my facts:

I have never claimed a home office for tax purposes during any of my 23 years in business.

I operate my medical practice as a single-member LLC. It’s located 28 miles from my home (56 miles round-trip).

I have a private office in the clinic.

I have an office inside my home with two workspaces. One is personal; the other is 100 percent business.

I do all the tax filings, government reports, QuickBooks work, payroll, banking, reconciliations of deposits, and business bill payments from my home. I also remote to my office computer from that desk/office in my home. I don’t do any of the administrative tasks just described at the clinic where my focus is seeing patients. On average, I use my home office about 15 hours a week for the tasks just described, business planning, and continuing education purposes.

I believe (after your excellent articles opened my eyes) that I might qualify for a home office that would allow me to treat my 56-mile round-trip four times a week as business miles.

I won’t find much benefit in the deduction for the home office itself as that workspace is only 40 square feet or so. My real benefit would come from eliminating the commuting.

If I eliminate the commute, my business use of vehicle percentage would rise from 750 miles (6 percent) to 11,502 miles (96 percent).

I want to buy a $50,000, more-than-6,000-pound gross vehicle weight–rated pickup truck with a six-foot or longer bed that qualifies for the Section 179 deduction. ... Log in to view full article.