Home Office Deduction: Can You Claim This Tax Break If You Worked from Home Last Year?

The key to the home office deduction is to use part of your home "regularly and exclusively" as your principal place of business. If you only worked from home for part of the year, you can only claim the deduction for the period that you can satisfy the "regularly and exclusively" requirements.

"Regular use" means you use a specific area of your home (e.g., a room or other separately identifiable space) for business on a regular basis. Incidental or occasional use of the space for business doesn't count.

"Exclusive use" means you use a specific area of your home only for your trade or business. The space doesn't have to be marked off by a permanent partition. You can't claim the home office deduction if you use the space for both business and personal purposes. However, the exclusive use requirement doesn't apply if you use part of your home:

The space must also be used:

(See IRS Publication 587 for more information about these and other requirements for the home office deduction.)

If you qualify, there are two ways to calculate the home office deduction for your 2021 tax return. Under the "actual expense" method, you essentially multiply the expenses of operating your home by the percentage of your home devoted to business use. If you worked from home for part of the year, only include expenses incurred during that time. Under the "simplified" method, you deduct $5 for every square foot of space in your home used for a qualified business purpose. Again, you can only claim the deduction for the time you worked from home. For example, if you have a 300-square-foot home office (the maximum size allowed for this method), and you worked from home last year for three months (25% of the year), your deduction is $375 ((300 x $5) x 0.25).