If you qualify to take the home office deduction and you have multiple businesses, this is for you.

As you know, if you're self-employed or run your own business and you have a home office, you get to take a deduction for the business use portion on things like rent, mortgage interest, utilities, etc.

Someone recently asked, can I take two home office deductions if I have two businesses. Well it depends. If you lived in only one home during the year, then the IRS will only allow you to take one home office deduction. It doesn't matter if you have more than one business.

But if you lived in more than one home during the year, well now the IRS will allow you to take multiple home office deductions because you lived in more than one home during the year.

So to take the deduction, it's not a matter of how many businesses you have but instead how many different homes you lived in during the year and which of those homes you had a home office in.

Hope this helps. If you have questions, please let me know.