For some, a desk space in the kitchen is the office. My data center is a little 9x9 room that looks like a dumpster. But the kitchen table is still the place for 'office work'.

The I.R.S. defines a home office - for deduction purposes - as follows:

Specific Area of Your Home

Your home office can be a separate room, but it does not have to be. The IRS home office rules say it may be a "separately identifiable space" and that permanent partitions are not necessary to mark off that space. But if you do not have permanent partitions, you should take care to define the space with furniture or some other way because you must only use this space for business purposes.

Regularly and Exclusively

The key point in taking the home office deduction is that the office space must not be for both personal and business use. So this means, if you want to deduct your home office, it shouldn't be the place you pay your bills and email your friends.

I'd say that if you move your makeup station to the other side of the garage, you would have a 'home office'.

" I was just wondering if my little corner of the garage can be considered an office?"

It depends on why you are asking. If you are trying for a home office business deduction from the IRS, they may have questions, as the garage also may have other purposes.

If you are asking whether it can be considered an office just in general, of course it can, any place set aside with a desk/computer could be considered an office. You could decorate your little corner and have a very comfortable cute little office space.

I do have an office now, love it that it's a designated separate space. For years my office was a corner in a guest room that really was not enough room, we do have a small business.

Why are you asking? When we were beginning the business, my accountant cautioned me about claiming the space, portions of expenses that would tie into household services (like power, water. home insurance) as business deductions. She told me doing that could possibly effect capital gains on the house at some point, and put me in the position to pay city B&O tax. As it stands, we don't pay the city B&O (just state tax), we don't see clients here at all, DH goes to them.

I just wanted to know what my little area could be called. I don't have a business or anything like that. I really want to call it my office, so others in my house will respect the area.I am tired of them walking in the garage, and instead of seeing if I am busy or not, just start talking. I handle the family finances and their interruptions make me lose my concentration and I have to start all over. I also handle other things that matter to our family.

Earphones could help you, Orchidlauraga. (They work for kids who don't want to hear their parents,)

I do our bills. DH knows not to bug me while I'm working -- and I don't interrupt when he's listening to a sports event or talk show.

If you want to call it your office, call it your office!

Just set some boundaries with your family; when you're working there, you're not readily accessible. That's just the way it is. If that's what you want. Or just lock the door.

Or, if they interrupt you, just simply say "I can't interact with you right now, but I should be done here in 1/2 hour" - or whatever. What you call the space is beside the point and matters not at all. Just tell your family the rules and stick to it.

Suzeque that sounds like a good idea. Heck I don't want to be interrupted when I am reading the KT either...lol

You could make a cute little "Do Not Disturb" sign to hang on the "inside the house" side of the door into the garage so that your family members will know that you don't want to be interrupted.

Does an office have to have walls?

Reminds me of Less Nessman from WKRP.
He just had tape on the floor.

Pooh Bear

Poohbear, I was going to say she needed to put tape on the floor. I'd forgotten about Less Nessman though. That was a funny show!
Orchidllauraga, I say put tape on the floor, tell your family if they need to talk to you while your "in your office", they have to stand outside the tape and wait to be recognized. They can only cross or talk without being recognized if it's an emergency. Depending on your children's age or temperament, you might have to define "emergency" to them first.

lock the door! lol....

Haha, OrchidLaura! I agree - no interruptions during KT time!

I can't shut the door, because of the cats. I share the garage with them. Their food & water is out here as is their litter boxes....

Laura, I've seen your "office" It's perfect for you. Leave it as it is and enjoy!

Call it an office if you want, it's your space. I don't keep my garage clean enough to do that.

Mine is in a spare bedroom and I put it facing away from the wall. I was so tired of facing the wall. Now it is like a reg office and I can look out my window. There is lots of natural light and the walls are covered with my travel souvenirs, travel photos and and stuff that makes me smile.

This post was edited by EmmaR on Fri, Jul 4, 14 at 0:02

so it's you and the cats..my kitties loved being alone with me... or would they want to be loved??

You have a corner office. It just happens to be in the garage.

I will love my little rinky dink office if we get me a desk and a new chair...

Laura, as for the cats, how about installing (it's simple to do) a cat door in the door between the house and garage? that way your door could be closed and the cats could come and go at will.

I will bring up the cat door to Tony again....We have one cat that stays in the garage most of the time (it is warmer in here) one of our cats is a graze eater, meaning he will dash in for a few bites of food, go to the litter box then he is gone. The last one only comes in mostly at night as she is real skittish..

Doesn't it get stifling hot in there in the summer for you to stay in there to work? Most areas of the south would be impossible to do that without an AC unit. It is however pretty easy to stick a little 5000btu window unit in a garage window or wall.
My office here is huge it is part of the sunroom area so I have a ton of windows and skylights to look out of. I never understood why so many people put their desks facing a wall. I never have I want to be able to see out not stare at a wall. I love my current office. But since it is right where we enter the house from the driveway it is a spot where a lot of stuff is just dropped off as we come in. But I have a nice sofa in here so I can have someone sitting there or to the left is the sunroom with all my wicker furniture and floor to ceiling windows to see all the wonder of nature. I have 3 huge skylights in the ceiling so I also get to see the clouds go by. On occasion a cat has climbed up on the roof and will look down at me through a skylight. Scared the heck out of me the first time it happened.
We don't own any cats! lol

If you enjoy your space then it certainly is your office or your special space and should be acknowledged as such. Ask them if they would like it if you just barged into their rooms?

We keep both doors open and we have an oversized ac unit so the air comes in that way...it is just a tad warmer out here than it is in the house. I made it through last summer, but it is a day by day thing since I have a laptop I can go anywhere...for a couple of hours...I do my house work around midday so I am not in here much during that time.

I would think the heat would be hard on a PC???

It is not hot out here...maybe 3-5 degrees warmer in the garage than it is in the house. My husband likes the house real cold, colder than I like it some time. Believe me if it were hot out here, I would not be out here....I don't do hot...I am Southern through & through and we just don't do hot...LOL