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Home Office Deduction


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My wife is a realtor (has been for anlmost 30 years) and has a home office. I do the taxes. We never claimed the office as a deduction, initially because doing so used to attract audits (I understand that’s not the case anymore). This year, I’m looking for every deduction I can. Couple of questions:

1. I understand that claiming depreciation from the home office can cause cause capital gain taxes when home is sold (otherwise, it would probably be our one time capital gains exemption). Can we deduct all expenses but skip deducting depreciation?

2. We remodeled about 65% of the house at an expense total of around $250,000. The home office was completely redone- floor, walls, trim, lights. Can we deduct that as part of our expense?

 Thanks for any help, or pointing I. The right direction for research 

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My wife is a realtor (has been for anlmost 30 years) and has a home office. I do the taxes. We never claimed the office as a deduction, initially because doing so used to attract audits (I understand that’s not the case anymore). This year, I’m looking for every deduction I can. Couple of questions:
1. I understand that claiming depreciation from the home office can cause cause capital gain taxes when home is sold (otherwise, it would probably be our one time capital gains exemption). Can we deduct all expenses but skip deducting depreciation?
2. We remodeled about 65% of the house at an expense total of around $250,000. The home office was completely redone- floor, walls, trim, lights. Can we deduct that as part of our expense?
 Thanks for any help, or pointing I. The right direction for research 
Talk to a CPA.
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I did some research, and it does indeed appear that if I use this deduction, I do have to do the depreciation, which means (a small percent) of capital gains comes into play when the house is sold. Which most likely will be done by our heirs, either after we die or before we are put into assisted living. 
 
I’ll just start filling out the form and see how bad it is, and weigh the consequences. 

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