186
Stevens, J., dissenting
be denied, except to insist that "[t]he taxpayer's house does not become a principal place of business by default." See ante, at 177. Because respondent chose to preserve one room in his home as an office, however, and because his business was so arranged that he spent most (though by no means all) of his working hours at one hospital, the Court holds that the costs of its maintenance may not be deducted.
Deductions, as Justice Blackmun notes, ante, at 179, are a matter of legislative grace, but that is no reason to read into them unnecessary restrictions that result in the unequal treatment of similarly situated taxpayers. Such unfair treatment could, of course, have been required by the Tax Code, if Congress had wanted, for example, to discourage parents from working at home; to promote the construction of office buildings or separate structures on residential real estate; or to encourage hospitals to keep doctors near their patients. We have no reason to think that Congress intended any such results.3 It is clear, in fact, that Congress intended only to prevent deductions for home offices that were not genuinely necessary business expenses. Because the tests Congress imposed to prevent abuse do not require us to deny respondent's claimed deductions for his home office, I would affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals.
II
Before 1976, home office deductions were allowed whenever the use of the office was "appropriate and helpful" to the taxpayer.4 That generous standard was subject to both abuse and criticism; it allowed homeowners to take deductions for personal expenses that would have been incurred even if no office were maintained at home and its vagueness
3 As the Tax Court wrote, "Section 280A was not enacted to compel a taxpayer to rent office space rather than work out of his own home." 94 T. C. 20, 29 (1990).
4 See Commissioner v. Tellier, 383 U. S. 687, 689 (1966); Newi v. Commissioner, 432 F. 2d 998 (CA2 1970).
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