The Home Office Tax Deduction Simplification and Improvement Act of 2009 was introduced last week in the House (H.R. 3056) by my old friend Charlie Gonzalez (D-TX), and in the Senate (S. 1349) by Senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). In both chambers of Congress, the legislation has been referred to their respective tax-writing committees. According to the press statement jointly released by the three lawmakers, this new legislation has a few additional goodies tacked onto it in addition to the standard home office deduction, which should further simplify things for home-based microbusiness owners.

For example, there is a provision in the bill allowing taxpayers to be eligible for the deduction if they use a part of their home to meet with or deal with clients, regardless of whether said clients are physically present or not. The bill also allows for de minimus use of business space for personal activities, so that home-based business owners don’t have to barricade their children out of their office or feel that paying a bill online from a business computer will disqualify them from taking the deduction. In some ways, the press statement is actually more interesting than the legislation, thanks to the way everybody went on and on about small firms and job creation. Lovely rhetoric, except that the vast majority of home-based microbusinesses are nonemployers. One assumes the snow job is necessary to garner support, given the current economic climate. What this bill will do is to provide those home-based businesses with capital to reinvest in their businesses, something they need pretty badly since they lack access to traditional capital and something that will help the economy, too.