Employees can exclude reimbursements from the employer for home.
Home office deduction under tcja. But the tax cuts and jobs act tcja has effectively eliminated home office deductions for employees through 2025. And for 2018 even fewer taxpayers will be eligible for a home office deduction. Fortunately many self employed individuals can still claim deductions even if they don t itemize deductions on their tax returns. The tcja temporarily eliminated all miscellaneous itemized deductions including the deduction for employee home offices.
The home office deduction is no longer a red flag. No actual home office expenses may be deducted under this method. T he t ax cuts and jobs act tcja of 2017 eliminated th e miscellaneous deduction for home office expenses for tax years 2018 2025. First let s explore the nuances of the home office deduction and how some taxpayers will still benefit from the deduction under tax reform while others have their deduction completely eliminated.
Under the tax cuts and jobs act employees can no longer claim the home office deduction if however you run a business from your home or are otherwise self employed and use part of your home for business purposes the home office deduction may still be available to you. For example if your home office is 150 square feet and your home is 1800 square feet you could claim 8 percent of your home related expenses on your tax return 150 1800. Working from home has become commonplace. In the past home office deductions were available to a wide range of taxpayers including certain employees who worked from home.
Changes under the tcja for employees home office expenses are a miscellaneous itemized deduction. Thus unless the law is changed employees who are working at home in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic don t get a tax deduction for those costs. Simplified method as an alternative to computing the actual costs of your expenses the irs offers a simplified method to make the home office deduction calculation easier. Countless taxpayers run businesses from home and the irs understands this.
Using the same figures as above if your home office is 200 square feet the simplified option for the home office deduction would allow you to claim 1 000 200 square feet x 5 as a home office. However the home office deduction is eliminated under the tax cuts and jobs act tcja because miscellaneous itemized deductions have been axed. The deduction is scheduled to return in 2026.