Clark has an office in the home and he uses it all the time. However, he does not deduct it from his taxes because his home office is not considered a principal place of business. So, that makes it ineligible. About 30 million people have offices in the home, working full or part time. And people often wonder if they can deduct it. The first question to ask is if you are working from home for the convenience of your employer. If so, you are eligible. For example, all of the reservation agents for the airline, JetBlue, work out of their homes. There is no reservations office. So, all of those agents qualify. The IRS used to disallow the majority of these home office claims. But now, even if you have part time use of an area, you may be able to deduct a portion of your home. The IRS has a form to help you calculate home office deductions. You may be able to include things like homeowner’s insurance, utilities, repairs and even things like your property tax and mortgage interest. You must have a real business with real revenue, though. Don’t just make it up.

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Are you thinking about doing your taxes at one of the H&R Block stores in Wal-Mart? Think twice about it. A Pittsburgh Post Gazette reporter said that your information is not private. The reporter was repeatedly able to get social security numbers, date of birth and other information off these forms. H&R Block officials said it was “hard to believe” that this was true. She said the forms are kept private and are not in plain view. What do you think?