Can I deduct electic and phone bills?

Question

I currently work part time as a medical transcriptionist at home. The only expenses I deduct at the end of the year are books and equipment, etc. and also my DSL but can I deduct part of all of my electric and/or phone bills or any other thing like this? Thanks.

Also I live in Ohio.

Answer 1

You can deduct a percentage of them.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p587/ar02.html#d0e823
The basic local telephone service charge, including taxes, for the first telephone line into your home is a nondeductible personal expense. However, charges for business long-distance phone calls on that line, as well as the cost of a second line into your home used exclusively for business, are deductible business expenses.

Answer 2

If you have a space in your home that you use regularly and exclusively for business, then you could take a home office deduction which would include a portion of the utilities equal to the percent of the total space in your home that's the area used for business. But if you use that area also for personal use even occasionally, like surfing or personal email on the computer or have your office in a room that's also used as a guest room, you can't take a home office deduction.

For the phone, if you have toll calls that are for business, you can deduct those. Or if you have a second phone line that you use only for business, that would be deductible - but not the expenses of your first phone except for the business calls tolls.

Answer 3

Are you an employee or an independent contractor?
First you must have a room or space in your home for exclusive and separate use of your job/business.
If you are an employee, then the regular and exclusive business use must be for the convenience of your employer and not just appropriate and helpful in your job.
If you are an independent contractor, then it must be your main place of work.

If you can deduct home office expenses, then you can also deduct proportionate expenses for utilities. As an employee you can deduct only if you itemize your deductions subject to 2% AGI limit.

Answer 4

No because you cannot pin point what is exactly used for business and what is personal. You need to get a separate phone line if you want to deduct it. And as for electric that's impossible to tell.

Answer 5

Yes, but only ifd you have a dedicated space for your business. By dedicated, the IRS menas a room used soley for th epurpose of your business. (It can not be a part of room).
If you meet that criteria, then you may write off the % of you utilities at the % the room's square footage to the total of the house. You may also write off the same % of any expenses such as snow removal, lawn surface, and any repairs.

Answer 6

only if you can prove how much electricity is used for the job office and not used in the home and what phone calls were directly work related. This will surly cause your tax filing to be red flagged and cause IRS to conduct an audit of your tax filing.

Answer 7

What you can do is measure the square footage of your home, then measure the square footage of the space in your home you use for work. Whatever percentage the work space is of your total home, you can deduct that percentage of your mortgage/rent, utilities, insurace and property taxes (if you own).

Hope that helps.

Answer 8

Yes you can, you can deduct your water bills, and even the area in your house where you work, good luck , Happy Halloween

Answer 9

If it is used directly for business purposes, yes.

Answer 10

no