Setting up a home office

land_shark3 · Post by **land_shark3** » November 8, 2005 9:04 am

During the next month or two, I may be asked to start working out of my home. For anyone that has a home office set up through your company (not self-employed people), I have a few questions for you.

1.) First and foremost, do you charge the company for "office space"? And if so, how much?

2.) How many phone lines do you need/use? One phone and one fax?

3.) Do you use your home address or a PO Box/mail center for business mailings?

4.) Do you write it off on taxes? A business associate who works out of his home, once told me that it wasn't worth it because of the restrictions.

I'm sure there will be more questions, but please feel free to share any other tips or lessons learned.

AlbatrossFlyer · Post by **AlbatrossFlyer** » November 8, 2005 9:11 am

most companies i know won't pay rent for a home office.

high speed internet access is a must.

1 dedicated phone line should do, unless you send and receive alot of faxs the a dedicated fax line is in order, but remember most homes and subdivisions are only wired for a maximum of 2 phone lines. you can always hang a fax on the business line for the few faxs you might need to deal with....

dawgfan · Post by **dawgfan** » November 8, 2005 9:11 am

1.) First and foremost, do you charge the company for "office space"? And if so, how much? No,but it was my choice to work @ home not mandatory

2.) How many phone lines do you need/use? One phone and one fax? I have a line for a fax and use my cell phone for almost all other calls

3.) Do you use your home address or a PO Box/mail center for business mailings? I use my home address

4.) Do you write it off on taxes? A business associate who works out of his home, once told me that it wasn't worth it because of the restrictions.Check with your CPA it actually can be a nice write off there are some rules you must follow though

ph4ever · Post by **ph4ever** » November 8, 2005 9:12 am

I never had a home office but a former boss did. She had 3 phone lines in her home. One for her family's use (basically their "original" home phone number) One for her business use and another for business fax. She also found she had to lock her office door as her teens would go there and take her pens and paper

I had another co-worker that used his cell instead of a land line when he was working at home - it was a PITA cause sometimes his cell reception wasn't the greatest in his house.

land_shark3 · Post by **land_shark3** » November 8, 2005 9:28 am

A few more details for you....

Our company currently has 5 satellite offices plus our corporate headquarters. They are looking at getting rid of all but one satellite office and the corporate headquarters. It's not necessarily our choice to work out of the home, but it does work out well for me.

Most likely, I'll be keeping VoIP phones so I will not be restricted by the number of CAT cables.

The cell phone was a thought, but in my current house I have no reception. Not sure about a new house.

jonesbeach10 · Post by **jonesbeach10** » November 8, 2005 9:31 am

Hey if you work at home, you can be on BN all you want. Wait is that a good thing?

land_shark3 · Post by **land_shark3** » November 8, 2005 9:34 am

jonesbeach10 wrote:Hey if you work at home, you can be on BN all you want. Wait is that a good thing?

Exactly...

dawgfan · Post by **dawgfan** » November 8, 2005 9:36 am

land_shark3 wrote:A few more details for you....

Our company currently has 5 satellite offices plus our corporate headquarters. They are looking at getting rid of all but one satellite office and the corporate headquarters. It's not necessarily our choice to work out of the home, but it does work out well for me.

Most likely, I'll be keeping VoIP phones so I will not be restricted by the number of CAT cables.

The cell phone was a thought, but in my current house I have no reception. Not sure about a new house.

There is a device out that you plug your cell phone into at your house where you have a good signal and can use your cordless phone through your cell service.I don't know alot about it saw it at the Nextel store over the weekend.

land_shark3 · Post by **land_shark3** » November 8, 2005 2:32 pm

dawgfan wrote:There is a device out that you plug your cell phone into at your house where you have a good signal and can use your cordless phone through your cell service.I don't know alot about it saw it at the Nextel store over the weekend.

I've seen Cingular's unit. Currently I just forward all my calls to my house.

Sam · Post by **Sam** » November 8, 2005 3:20 pm

Find a good accountant that is knowleable of current tax laws.

I have been told you need to keep the office space separate from the rest of the house such as in a separate and not in a common area...ie living room.

Okies I don't care for VoIP because if power goes out, we lose the phone. Cell phones are not reliable here.
There is another reason to but suffice it to say, that I don't like paying twice for the same line.

Consider DSL. You can still use the phone. Get a printer that will also fax and you are set. If if copies too you will good to go but SOL if one part of it dies then have to replace whole unit.

Consider security for your office computer. You may want consider gretting a linux box or other type hard firewall. Get the best anti virus you can get. Get the best software firewall and anticpyware you can get.

A back up drive and power supply will be a must have also.

KEEP STRICT HARD COPY RECORDS AND RECEIPTS OF ALL PURCHASES for your office. Don't forget about upgrading your computer either. ( ie If you buy and install more RAM and do it yourself....don't forget the labor for doing it.) All programs neccessary for work,ink cartridges,papers, etc.

Probably lots of other ideas out there as well, but one little thing:
ALWAYS SAVE AND BACK UP YOUR WORK!!!! You never know when the BSD is going to visit you or your hard drive or motherboard are going to go oon a sabbatical.

ejr · Post by **ejr** » November 8, 2005 4:09 pm

I have many friends in my profession (college admissions) who work out of a home office. the biggest piece of advice I can give you based on their experience is do not use your home office as a tax deduction--it can be quite cumbersome, and it often can lead to an audit. Many of my colleagues have been audited and it was not a pleasant experience at all. I know when I was considering it, my accountant advised me similarly and told me that it just was not worth it.

land_shark3 · Post by **land_shark3** » November 8, 2005 6:03 pm

Sam wrote:I have been told you need to keep the office space separate from the rest of the house such as in a separate and not in a common area...ie living room.

ejr wrote:the biggest piece of advice I can give you based on their experience is do not use your home office as a tax deduction--it can be quite cumbersome, and it often can lead to an audit. Many of my colleagues have been audited and it was not a pleasant experience at all. I know when I was considering it, my accountant advised me similarly and told me that it just was not worth it.

That's pretty much what my buddy told me. Tax laws specify that you can't use the room for anything other than business and the hassle just wasn't worth writing it off.

Sam · Post by **Sam** » November 8, 2005 7:42 pm

land_shark3 wrote:
Sam wrote:I have been told you need to keep the office space separate from the rest of the house such as in a separate and not in a common area...ie living room.
ejr wrote:the biggest piece of advice I can give you based on their experience is do not use your home office as a tax deduction--it can be quite cumbersome, and it often can lead to an audit. Many of my colleagues have been audited and it was not a pleasant experience at all. I know when I was considering it, my accountant advised me similarly and told me that it just was not worth it.
That's pretty much what my buddy told me. Tax laws specify that you can't use the room for anything other than business and the hassle just wasn't worth writing it off.

Something to think about, is IF you have enough property and have an out building. I dunno your land or house status, or tax status or anything else oe even if you could write off the cost of the outbuilding. ( My understanding was that if it was 100% business then you could do so, but again....I am not sure about that!) I would check around with the tax people to see if it might be viable or cost feasable.
One other thing that MIGHT have to be considered about such an out building might be zoning, but again....you would have to check your area.

You were asking for ideas and I am just trying to give you a few. IF you can keep it isolated to one room of the house and for "strictly" business SHOULD be ok, but is something you need to ask say someone that is knowledgeable in your area. From there you have to make up your own mind about what is accepted and what is not...such as your car and fuel expenses to pick up meeded computer parts or supplies.

I am not a tax accountant and my apologies for not really of being much of help other than a few ideas.

Best of luck and please let me know how it goes.

land_shark3 · Post by **land_shark3** » November 8, 2005 9:18 pm

Sam wrote:Something to think about, is IF you have enough property and have an out building. I dunno your land or house status, or tax status or anything else oe even if you could write off the cost of the outbuilding. ( My understanding was that if it was 100% business then you could do so, but again....I am not sure about that!) I would check around with the tax people to see if it might be viable or cost feasable.
One other thing that MIGHT have to be considered about such an out building might be zoning, but again....you would have to check your area.

You were asking for ideas and I am just trying to give you a few. IF you can keep it isolated to one room of the house and for "strictly" business SHOULD be ok, but is something you need to ask say someone that is knowledgeable in your area. From there you have to make up your own mind about what is accepted and what is not...such as your car and fuel expenses to pick up meeded computer parts or supplies.

I am not a tax accountant and my apologies for not really of being much of help other than a few ideas.

Best of luck and please let me know how it goes.

House status: For Sale

I'm in outside sales, so I've been doing the car/fuel thing for 5 years now. It will actually save me tax dollars in that respect because you don't get to write off miles between home and office.

Since I spend a great deal of time out of the office, it sounds like it just wouldn't be worth it. I'll just worry about the company covering all the expenses.

Thanks for all your help everyone!