Running a business from home

A. The good news is yes you can save some money and claim for any genuine business expenses associated with running a home office.

In most cases, these expenses will have to be estimated and you must ensure that these estimates are reasonable before claiming them as a tax deduction.

Examples include:

Rent - you can assign a portion of your rent if you use a room as an office for your business, the cost is usually calculated based on square footage

Light & Heat - You can claim for lighting and heating expenses, but only for the additional costs that you incur in running the home office

Telephone/Broadband – You can claim for all business calls made from home phone/mobile along with a proportion of broadband

Insurance – Any additional premium charged for running your business from home is an allowable expense

Finally, a word of caution. Do not claim any part of your mortgage repayment as a tax deduction for your business. This will create income tax/capital gains tax issues for you in the medium/long term and is not advisable.

Date published 22 Sep 2017

This article is intended to inform rather than advise and is based on legislation and practice at the time. Taxpayer’s circumstances do vary and if you feel that the information provided is beneficial it is important that you contact us before implementation. If you take, or do not take action as a result of reading this article, before receiving our written endorsement, we will accept no responsibility for any financial loss incurred.