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Home Office Inventory Template
What Is Home Office Inventory?
When you are working from home or have an at-home small business, it is important to keep a Home Office Inventory . Even if the space is occasionally used for mixed-use purposes (such as having a workspace that might also be a spare bedroom) you are still eligible to claim the space used and the supplies listed in your Home Office Inventory as part of your expenses on your taxes. You can then use the information you've gathered to complete IRS Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of Your Home.
As part of your documentation for your home office inventory, you will also want to take measurements of the areas used for storage and photos of the area for documentation. You can download a Home Office Inventory template through the link below.
How to Keep a Home Office Inventory?
You will want to claim this potential deduction on your taxes by using the actual or simplified expense methods. The actual expense method will include calculating costs such as the rent, mortgage, utilities, internet, property taxes, and renter's insurance for the percentage of the space used as a home office. To use the simplified expense method you would instead claim $5 for every square foot of space in use, with a max of $1,500 or 300 square feet claimed.
To create a Home Office Inventory, you will want to make sure your business meets the following requirements:
- All products in your inventory are sold at retail or wholesale;
- Sample or inventory products are kept at your home;
- Your home is the only site listed where inventory is kept (inventory is not kept at an outside storage site or office);
- The storage space you are claiming is regularly used as the inventory space;
- The space is clearly identified as storage space for inventory and efforts are made to identify this as a separate workspace.
Still looking for a particular template? Take a look at the related forms below:
