What you need to know about claiming home office expenses

In order to claim, the space you use must be used primarily for your business. You need to have a dedicated space set up from which you work. If you are selling online and storing stock, you may also be using other spaces in your house for storage or stock maintenance. If you are making or creating products, you may be using other areas like your kitchen or workshop. 

To understand what percentage of your home is being used for your business, you should work out the area in square meters. Once you have the number, you can use this to calculate what you'll claim. So, for a 150 square meter home, where 15 square meters are used for the business, 10% of the home is dedicated to the business.

You can then claim a corresponding portion of your household expenses against your business income.

They could include:

• power
• rates
• house and contents insurance
• mortgage interest if you own the home
• rent if you are renting the home

Keeping track of expenses
Make sure you keep a record of all your expenses and retain your records for seven years. It's important to keep your personal and business expenses separate. Consider using online accounting software so the paperwork is kept in good order.

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