Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : Web Hosting Lounge : Can rent be taken off your taxes?

[Dave22]

If so how much of it?

[sasha]

In Canada, yes. If you have home office, then you have to calculate what percentage of the home is used for the office. That is percentage of the rent that you can claim as your bussines expense. Same goes for phone, power, Internet connection, heat and so on.

[bear]

Same here in NY state, but if you claim too high a percentage, they *will* question it.

[rockergrrl]

The sames goes for in the US as well

[JayC]

Originally posted by Dave22
If so how much of it?

You'd have to be a lot more specific. What rent? Your office, or your home? Part of the home that's used for business purposes? What taxes? Federal (and as Sasha's answer points out, what country?), or state?

[sasha]

Oh and btw, you can always put the large sticker on your new car and claim part of the car as marketing expense.

[Dave22]

rent for home.

[Dave22]

I'm in the US of course.........any taxes. I don't have a business.

[JayC]

Originally posted by Dave22
I'm in the US of course.........any taxes. I don't have a business.

Then generally no, your home rent is not deductible on federal income taxes. For some states' income taxes, though, it is.

[madmouser]

If you're talking about US taxes, do yourself a favor and spend $30-$40 on TaxCut Deluxe,Platinum or Home and Business.
You don't have to fill out any forms or figure anything out.
Just install it and run it and it will ask you questions that you answer or provide the information it asks for. It will help you get allowable deductions and keep you out of jail or off the IRS audit list.
When you're finished, it will print out the forms you need ready to sign and go.
It is the only way to go if you don't have an accountant doing it.

[hostpath.com]

If you use a portion of your home for business -- we're talking a DEDICATED business space -- that proportional amount of rent can be deducted. As can a similar proportion of your electric bill and any other shared but required utility. You can also deduct the cost of cleaning and maintaining that area of your home as janitorial expense.

[rockergrrl]

If you pay rent -- say an apartment, and your office is apart of your apartment, you can write off the percentage of your office - if you use that for sole business purposes only.

Say you have a 10x10 room that you use for your office. And your apartment is 1000 sqft, you can write off 10% of your total rent for the year. Your rent is $800/month - your total rent for the year is $9600, so you are allowed to write off $960 - as that's the percentage of what your office used, etc.

The same goes for electricity/gas, etc.

[JayC]

The topic of this thread, to stay on track with the original poster's question, is if you do not own a business.

Just trying to keep things from getting too confusing. In the context of the question here, the answer is that home rent is not deductible for US income tax purposes.

[MDJ2000]

Federal...no, State...depends, what state are you in?

[Dave22]

ok so in other words i have to have some type of business at home before i can take of something like rent for an apt?

If i don't have a business i can't take rent off of my taxes then right?

thanks for the help