While I was self employed, I did the HO deduction. That must have been at least 7, maybe 8 years, and never an audit. I also never seemed to fear an audit as much as many seem to. Maybe I just didn't cook the books enough to be worried.

I took the home office deduction for about 20 years through 2004. I was self-employed for about 15 of them and home-based employee for the rest. Wrote "Sole fixed place of business" (true) on the form. Never advised against it by a tax advisor. (I saw a few different ones over that period. Some skated close to the edge, some the opposite.) Never an audit, either.

Same as OP -- work remotely for a software company, get the same re-imbursements, travel maybe 1/3 of the time. Haven't tried the HO deduction--and if you looked at my office, it definitely looks like it is used for more than work (I suppose I could fix that were there an audit).

The benefits of just being able to work in my boxers (on a cold day :) ) and essentially being able to make my own hours are such that I don't mind not getting the deduction (if it would go). It would be extremely difficult to have to go into an office again.

I may sing a different tune if I were self-employed (I think).

As I recall, you may have some tax complications when you deduct your home office when you sell your home.

Key word here is "may." They arise only if you deduct part of your mortgage principal payments in your HO deduction. In that case, the complication is that the amount you deducted over the years (not hard to figure out, involves adding up a few easily found numbers) must be subtracted from the purchase price of the home, giving an adjusted purchase price, before calculating the potentially taxable gain on the sale. That's it. If you don't deduct part of your principal payments, but deduct only part of your expenses like heating and repaving the driveway, this issue doesn't arise at all.

Nothing beats being a remote employee.

Unless you have tons of electrical equipment in your home office you are better off not asking your employer to reimburse you for a portion of your utility bills.

If you are a valuable resource to your employer and you can make a good case, I think it would be far better to insist on better travel benefits (like J or F tickets for international travel, Concierge level rooms, etc).

Don't assume we are all cooking the books. The issue with audits is that they are an inconvenience and time-robber. And even with a clean audit, they tend to come back and hit you two more years in a row after the first one. It's just an invasive time-waster.

M8

I get $40/month for DSL and $75/month for cell phone and a one-time $300 to set up my home office. No land line, no Xmas party - I'm starting to feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick....