I can legitimately claim 100% of my house as being used for daycare. The kids watch videos in the living room, parents walk through our large central hallway to get to the playroom (which is daycare only and doesn't even have to be entered after hours) the dining room is full of highchairs, one of the kids needs quiet and sleeps in our bedroom, my office contains my computer, the bathroom is used to wash hands although no one is potty trained, so it's just handwashing, our screened in porch contains the washer and dryer. We have 3 bedrooms, but one is an office and one is the playroom. We have a large wrap around porch, and one end of it is where I store the outside toys to keep them out of the weather.

So, without fudging, I can justify using every room in the house. My husband doesn't want me to do that because he's afraid that it will be more likely to trigger an audit.

Should I leave out the office or the laundry porch or something, just to look more normal?

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we are 100% too. I can't figure out how someone in a house our size wouldn't be.

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I am 100% as well. Been that way all 11 years.

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Thanks y'all. That's good to know. The business we had before was also home based, but it seems the rules were different. We could only claim the rooms that were 100% business. So even though my computer was in the office, since my sewing machine was in there too, I couldn't claim it. This is much better!
Thanks!

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The rules for deducting expenses associated with your home are different for family child care providers than every other home-based business. All other businesses can only claim house expenses if they use one or more rooms in their home strictly (100%) for their business. Family child care providers only need use a room "regularly" for their business (2-3 times a week) to be able to count the room as business. It is not unusual for providers to claim that all of their rooms are used regularly for their business. This would mean that your space percent was 100%. However, you must then multiply your space percent by your time percent. With an average time percent of 35-40%, it's typical for a provider to have a time-space percent of 30-40%.

Don't make the mistake of claiming 100% of your house expenses because your space percent is 100%. Use your time-space percent. Here's an article with more information: http://www.tomcopelandblog.com/2011/...tage-quiz.html

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Thanks Tom. I got your books a couple of weeks ago and am diligently going back through my year to organize things according to these new rules. I'll miss some things this year, due to un-informed record keeping, but I won't miss anything in 2012!!

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I use 100% of my house - have been for 7 years. Even if the kids aren't in that room, I use it for storage(but most days I have someone sleeping in every room of the house in pack n plays) I have 6 in pack n plays - gets interesting finding a place for them all You don't even want to know where I considered putting one once upon a time.

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