Nuance Regarding "Self-Employment" Expenses

donnymeloche

Hey there!

For context, my partner and I are filing together as common-law. We both do different work from home (using different dedicated rooms) and split rent, hydro, water, and internet, but have our own independent phone plans. On TurboTax, under home expenses, it says: "Enter the total amounts for your home in 2025, and we’ll calculate the business portion."

We're wondering: does "total amount" here mean that we input 100% of our annual bills for rent, hydro, water, internet, and phone? For example, if our total rent for the year equals $20,000, would we both input $20,000? Or would we individually input $10,000 to collectively equal our total annual bill for rent? Just confused by the vague Turbotax wording here.

Regarding our phone & internet bills (which we use both for personal and business use): would we each enter our annual phone & internet bills (at 100%), assuming that Turbotax will calculate the appropriate "business %" for us based on our total square footage of home office space? Or would it be more accurate to first establish personal usage percentage (50%) vs. business usage percentage (50%), inputting only the "total amount" for our business usage percentage?

Trying to figure out the nuance here. Thanks so much for any insight!

TurboTaxAniqua

Do not double-count your expenses. TurboTax asks for the "total amount" so it can apply a percentage, but that "total" should only represent the portion you personally paid. If you both enter 100% of the household bills, you would effectively be claiming 200% of your rent to the CRA, which is a major red flag.

For bills that you split (rent, hydro, water, internet), you should only enter your share of the bill.

• If the total rent is $20,000 and you paid $10,000, you enter $10,000 as your "total."
TurboTax will then ask for your home's total square footage and your office's square footage. It uses these to calculate your specific deduction.
- Example: If your room is 10% of the house, it will calculate 10% of your $10,000 share ($1,000) as your deduction.
Since you are filing as a couple, ensure the combined "total amounts" you both report don't exceed the actual 100% cost of the bills.

Since you have independent phone plans, this is simpler:

Input 100% of your own bill. Do not include your partner’s plan at all.
Personal vs. Business %: Unlike rent (which is based on square footage), phone and internet usage are usually based on time or data usage.

For most people, the safest way to avoid an audit is simply to enter your personal share of the total annual bill and let TurboTax apply the square footage calculation automatically.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

Nuance Regarding "Self-Employment" Expenses

Troubleshooting