How much is the simplified home office deduction in 2026?
$5 per square foot of space used regularly and exclusively for business, for up to 300 square feet — so the method can give at most $1,500 for the year. The rate comes from Rev. Proc. 2013-13 and has not changed since the method was introduced; it is not adjusted for inflation.
United States · federal · tax year 2026 · every figure from an open dataset with its source
The figures
| Figure | Amount |
|---|---|
| Rate per square foot | $5 |
| Square feet you may claim | 300 |
| Largest deduction the method can give computed | $1,500 |
The trade is simplicity for size. The simplified method needs no record of rent, utilities, insurance or depreciation — only the square footage — but it stops at $1,500 however large the room or however high the rent. Anyone with a genuinely expensive home office is usually better off with the regular method, and the choice can be made afresh each year.
Two limits are not in the arithmetic. The deduction cannot exceed the gross income of the business it belongs to, and the part disallowed by that limit does not carry forward to a later year — the opposite of how the regular method behaves. Exclusive use is also meant literally: a desk in a room the household also uses does not qualify, however carefully the hours are logged.
Where these figures come from
Each row below is one line of our open dataset: the primary document the figure was read out of, the date it was read, and a link to the document itself. Nothing here was copied from a summary of a summary.
| constant | basis | source document | verified on |
|---|---|---|---|
HOME_OFFICE_RATE |
prescribed | Rev. Proc. 2013-13, via IRS Tax Topic 509 (Business use of home) | ✓ verified |
HOME_OFFICE_MAX_SQFT |
prescribed | Rev. Proc. 2013-13, via IRS Tax Topic 509 | ✓ verified |
Work out your own
Knowing the limit is half of it. These calculators apply the same figures to your numbers, in your browser, and show the working line by line.
The whole dataset
Every figure on this page, and everything around it, as a table you can read and as CSV and JSON you can download. Public domain, no attribution required.
Nearby answers
This is a reference table, not tax advice. Verify any figure against the linked primary document before relying on it.
