I am working two jobs. One is full time, making X amount of money. And the other is part-time, making Y amount of money. Y is much less than X, less than a quarter of X. For the part-time job, i can only work from home, because that employer does not provide office space for me.
Based on IRS publication 587, I can file this expense for the business use of my home, into schedule A. There is a worksheet on page24 of the publication.
However, where should I put that expense onto schedule A? Shall I put down to "Job Expenses and Most Other Miscellaneous Deductions" section? If so, there is this 2% of AGI restriction, which eventually makes me unable to itemize that expense. And clearly, majority of my AGI doesn't come from this part-time job.
I started to reply basicly the same thing, but then I reread the original message and got the impression that OP is somebody elses employee (gets a W2) rather than a contractor whose pay is reported on a
1099-MISC. So I don't think the schedule C applies.
Thanks Charlie. I looked at the Schedule C instruction. It seems Schedule C is for sole-propietor business owner or statutory employee. However, for this particular part-time job, i'm just a work-on-demand employee. The W-2 from this job does hold federal, state, medicare, social security taxes. This part-time job is nothing related to goods or merchandise. It's all about computer information processing and i strictly work from my home.
You work on demand, without a schedule? And done in your home?
Perhaps you are assigned a batch of work, and then complete it at home? As long as you generally deliver the completed "stuff" by a certain day?
Could be bad news.
Find out from the "employer" EXACTLY what is being reported and deducted.
Many years ago, I actually had a US employer who decided that, since I used my own car for work (all day, every day), to report me as somehow magically SOME Employee, and SOME Indepependant Contractor, at the same time. The employer's stupid games and lack of disclosure cost me money and hassle later.
Ask if you are getting ANY earnings planned for a Form-1099 That says that the IRS is being told that you are an Independant Contractor. And, as above, an employer (in my case, officially appealed as such, but uncooperative arsewipe with no money...) could be playing games, such as to avoid their Social Insecurity contribution.
OTOH, a home-office deduction is apparently a huge Red- Flag saying, "Please Audit Me - I Like To Scam Deductions," even if you are totally legit (they won't know that until their proctoscopic exam of you confirms so...)
Been there, done that, brought my own K-Y. I was cool, but I am hoping that I went to the bottom of the hassle-list for a few years.
If you have ANY uncertainty about deducting your home office, or car, or travel, etc, etc, call the tax authoriTAH, and request their official guidebook on the issue.
If you are ever call IRS collections, then ASSume that the dork on the other end of the phone is just a hostile suspect. Really. I once had one of their drones say that the, "Both-Employee-And-Independant- Contractor" scam was legit.
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