Do you use part of your home  exclusively for your business on a regular basis?

To qualify under the exclusive use test you must use an area of your home only for your trade or business.  The business area doesn’t have to be in a separate room or blocked off by a partition, but it must be identifiable.  For example, a workstation in the corner of a living room may qualify, but piling papers on your kitchen table would not. (Note: The exclusive test doesn’t apply to daycare facilities, or in some other cases, for the storage of business inventory or product samples.  Check irs.gov/smallbiz for the special rules.)

Regular use means that you use part of your home for your business on a continuing basis.  Occasional business use is not enough to meet this requirement – even if you use an area designated exclusively for business purposes.