What qualifies as a deductible home office furniture expense?

[Amelia.B]

I’m trying to figure out if I can deduct the cost of my home office desk and chair this year, since I started working remotely full-time. My employer doesn’t reimburse for furniture, but I’m not sure if a one-time purchase like this qualifies as an unreimbursed employee expense or if it’s considered a capital improvement.

[Brandon44]

From my experience, if you’re a W2 worker, you can’t deduct a home office desk as an unreimbursed expense anymore. The TCJA basically pulled that deduction. If you’re self employed, you can deduct it as a business expense or depreciate it, but not as an employee deduction. And if you end up taking the home office deduction, it’s tied to the space, not a single piece of furniture.

[MadisonMS]

I did something similar when I started a small consulting gig from home. I bought a desk and chair and treated them as business assets. I used depreciation and, in the right year, might have preferred expensing, but it felt messy and I wasn’t sure what qualified, so I stuck with the space-related costs only.

[Aubrey_M]

I keep thinking maybe it’s a capital improvement since it upgrades the workspace at home. But with the way most people I know handle it, that’s not how the IRS sees it for deductions on a personal residence.

[John56]

Have you filed as self-employed or as a W2 employee?