If you meet the IRS guidelines for operating a home office, you can get a significant tax break. Be sure to separate your expenses into direct and indirect expenses. Direct expenses are fully deductible. Those are things like painting or decorating your office; cleaning services for the business portion of your home and insurance on business equipment. Indirect expenses are those that apply to your entire home. Calculate the square footage of your office as a percentage of the square footage of your whole home to calculate how much you can deduct from rent, mortgage utilities and other expenses.