Home Office Expenses

Simultaneous use: Only one qualifies. Sequential use (when someone moves): Both qualify but only for a fractional year each.

This makes sense. Say he used house one in January, house two in February, house one in March -- then the house1 part of the deduction only applies to January and March, and the house2 part only to February. That's because house1/house2 was not being used for business all of the year.

I would say both qualify if they are truly being used simultaneously. If the room in house1 houses a web server, for example, then I don't see why costs on the room in house1 should not be deductible for the entire year. Of course, it the room was very big, then perhaps only the part of the room used for holding the computer and air conditioning unit if any should qualify.

It used to be that the home office had to be the taxpayer's primary place of business. In that case there can be only one, so only one would qualify at a time.

But the current version of section 280A doesn't require that. The primary place of business can qualify. But also can an office where the taxpayer "deals with" client in the normal course of his business. A home office can also qualify if there's business use of a separate structure.

Since the statute is written in the disjunctive, it appears that a person can have more than one home office, as long as each one qualifies under the terms of the statute.

Stu