Home-Office Deduction: What if I Have a Pool Table in the Office?

Home-Office Deduction Question: I heard that if I had an office in my home and in that home-office room I had a pool table, I could simply subtract the amount of square footage that the pool table takes up from the square footage of the office. I do have a pool table, and I actually use the pool table as a surface to frame photographs for my photography clients, but I don’t use it exclusively that way.

What’s the best practice here?

Home Office Deduction Answer

Answer: Your deduction for the home office is for the area used exclusively for business. The square footage of that room used for the non-exclusive-use pool table does not count.

Further, the pool table casts doubt on that entire room passing the exclusive-use test. For example, say you have three people over to play pool. Are they sitting at your work desk and roaming your work areas during their play and while having conversations? If so, that entire room likely fails the exclusive-use rule.

Your best practice here is to have an office in the home without a pool table.