So I know there are specific rules on what percent of your rent and utility bills you can deduct as part of the home office deduction, but how exactly is the IRS going to find out exactly what percent of my apartment I use for work? It seems like I can say anything I want and they have no way of finding out whether it's true or not.
>>1383364
IRS: "Scuse me while I audit Radical Pepe, hes making some radigal claims here."
Pepe: "Fug ::DD"
>>1383405
Turns out pepe is running a charity that donates electricity and utilities to pepe
>>1383364
Exactly. They can't. And you're not one of the major contributors of your state. That's why no one gives a fuck about how much money you pay or not.
I just set up a separate meter in my house and wired random shit into it when I was renovating and needed to add a second breaker panel (old stuff had way too much shit on each breaker). Refurb meters cost like 40 bucks, so I just put one in the run from the master to the sub panel. I just deducted everything on the subpanel for years since I had accurate measurements. Got asked about it once because I wasn't deducting a flat percentage (guessing), and just said, oh, I have two breaker panels, and a refurb meter. Showed the receipts from years before for the hardware, and never heard about it again.
Pretty sure most places aren't going to give a shit if you aren't using thousands in electricity on your illegal pot grow. At that point it's just an extra thing to nail you for. Sort of like those laws about it being legal to carry a knife for lawful purposes. Useless do nothing law that only gives them more ammunition when they are going after you for other things.
Take off a decent portion of your electricity. Ask your electric company for a detailed report about your daily usage habits if you really want. Use that information to come up with some bullshit magic math to justify what percentage you settled on if someone ever questions you.
Or just don't give a fuck because you probably wont ever get questioned if you aren't being clearly abusive.
Normally I'm one of the people advocating exceptional record keeping because throwing a nicely organized phone book of receipts at the IRS is a great way to make them fuck off, but this is one of the few situations where they aren't going to even bother to question you, let alone investigate you.
