What are the Tax write-offs working from home for the Public School Department?

[smahdi]

Hello,
I work from home doing tech support for a public school in my state. They reimburse me for my part of my Internet fees. What are the tax write-offs working from home. I do my own taxes and have trusted this to an accountant twice that failed me twice. I rather continue on my own and would like to know or possibly point me to some great websites.

Thank You,
Livluvlaf_f

[KLB]

To be honest the only way to know what can and can not be safely written off is via a CPA. I don't make any tax or financial related move without getting advice from my accountant. What you need to do is talk with various small business people and find out who they use for an accountant. Personal recommendations are the best way to find a good accountant because the good ones never advertise (they don't need to).

[Chris]

Most accountants too will give you a free consultation.

Though a lot of it will depend on if you're a contractor or an employee. As a contractor you could write off more.

[KLB]

Though a lot of it will depend on if you're a contractor or an employee. As a contractor you could write off more.

This is a very important note, there was a lot my mother could not write off as a work at home employee that she could write off as an independent contractor. It pretty much boiled down to she couldn't write off stuff as an employee because here employer should have reimbursed those expenses.

Basically work at home employees are pretty much SOL when it comes to tax write offs, but a good tax accountant will know just how far they can push on writing stuff off.

[SandDancer]

You're better off looking at the info "straight from the horses mouth" by looking at the IRS website. It looks like they are pretty strict on things like the "exclusivity of equipment and office space" for working from home. Have a look here

http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq-kw82.html

[KLB]

While reading the IRS website is a very good idea, with this type of thing one should still rely on a paid professional to make sure one understands IRS requirements correctly.

Government regulations are a very sticky wicket and misinterpretations are very easy. I should know I used to be responsible for helping to make sure that a trucking company I worked for stayed in compliance with OSHA, DOT and EPA regs (my boss was the designated "jailee" if things went wrong). There is nothing like having Federal inspectors/auditors going over every scrap of your records and business. Trust me you don't want to be looking face to face with an IRS auditor without the CPA who did your taxes sitting next to you.