im a computer programmer. in march of 2006 i became a 1099 independant contractor and moved cross-country (to new orleans!) for a client; in november i became a single-member LLC (disregarded entity to the IRS; filing as a sole prop). i have two clients, one that i work for from home, the other that i work for onsite. my home is a house i bought after arriving here. i use quicken for my income & expenses, which is pretty straight-forward. i plan to hire an accountant for an hour or two, but i wanted to do some research first before going in. im mainly curious about expenses. i save all of my business-related reciepts and log them -- gas & car costs, work meals, office supplies, etc. i believe i understand how they work. but what im not clear on, is if and how much i can expense:
- monthly cell phone - monthly internet - monthly mortage (note + interest + insurance + taxs) - monthly utilities (elec, water, security) - home repairs
...all of which are used for personal use as well. my home-office is only 1/4 of my study, which is about 1/6 of my house. my home-office's two computers are also for personal use when im not working. this is my confusion -- it seemed from the IRS site that a home-office must be used
*only* for work, not for personal, in order to claim it. which seemed odd to me... can anyone give me a primer, tips, etc?thanks, matt