WHAT PERCENTAGE OF OUR UTILITY BILLS CAN OUR HOME BUSINESS CLAIM?

We have the commercial operation which you run out of the home. We have an industrial copier/printer as well as 3 computers continuous during any time. We light the bureau all afternoon. We additionally use gas for feverishness (we’re in Alaska). It’s often the physical phenomenon as well as gas which I’m wondering about. The phone is billed alone to the business. We have been perplexing to figure out how most it is costing us to run the commercial operation monthly. I only need to know severe percentages. Thanks!

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

M September 5, 2010 at 11:15 am

same as percentage of area of home that is declared for business

Darq September 5, 2010 at 11:19 am

Get a good accountant,

It helps a lot with small businesses

Angie September 5, 2010 at 11:22 am

I believe this is usually done on a square footage basis. Figure out the total square footage of your house, and then just your business area. If you business takes up 20% of your house, you can deduct 20% of your utilities.

Brian September 5, 2010 at 11:55 am

The way I used to do it was to (1) determine the total square footage of your home (2)determine how much square footage you are using for office space (3) divide the two to get a percentage that you can use to allocate expense to your business.

Realtyyoudefine September 5, 2010 at 12:07 pm

This is only an educated opinion. To be sure not to run afoul of the tax laws, you should speak to a tax professional.
Whatever percentage of your total home square footage that is dedicated to your business should be able to be deducted.
For instance if you have 10 rooms in your home and one room (which is 10% of the rooms) is used EXCLUSIVELY for your business, you can claim 10% of the utility costs.
Or if your home is 2000 sf and your office is 500 sf, that would be 25%.
And if you heat and light your home for longer hours than you light and heat the office, you would have to reduce it proportionately.
Be very careful, the burden of proof is on you; keep good documentation.

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