Question

USE ONLY IRC 280A Disallowance of certain expenses in connection with business use of home, rental of vacation homes, etc.

Sarah is a self-employed massage therapist (i.e. owns her own business instead of working at a spa company). She rents a suite in an office building downtown where she normally performs massages for clients. She also has a den at home where she sometimes likes to take notes from online research for new techniques for massage (e.g. hot stone or pressure point massage therapy). However, she does not offer massages for clients at her home and does nearly all her administrative work at the office building suite.

A. Will Sarah be able deduct some portion of her home’s expenses related to her massage business this year?

B. Explain in one or two sentences only why you gave the answer to part A using the research resource you found. Make sure to cite the area of the resource you used.

Answer 1

A.

No, Sarah will nor be able to deduct any of her home's expenses related to her massage business this year.

B.

The answer is no, because as per IRC 280A, the general rule is of dis-allowance with certain exceptions.

Sarah does not fall into those exceptions as she neither uses her residence as place of business, nor she any of her client visit her residence for the services. Also, the residence is a separate dwelling unit which is not regularly used for business.