Cite as: 506 U. S. 168 (1993)
Stevens, J., dissenting
made it difficult to administer.5 It was particularly favorable to employees who worked at home on evenings and weekends even though they had adequate office facilities at their employer's place of business.6 In response to these criticisms, Congress enacted § 280A to prohibit deductions for business uses of dwelling units unless certain specific conditions are satisfied.
The most stringent conditions in § 280A, enacted to prevent abuse by those who wanted to deduct purely residential costs, apply to deductions claimed by employees.7 This provision alone prevents improper deduction for any second of-5 See, e. g., S. Rep. No. 94-938, pt. 1, p. 147 (1976): "With respect to the 'appropriate and helpful' standard employed in the court decisions, the determination of the allowance of a deduction for these expenses is necessarily a subjective determination. In the absence of definitive controlling standards, the 'appropriate and helpful' test increases the inherent administrative problems because both business and personal uses of the residence are involved and substantiation of the time used for each of these activities is clearly a subjective determination. In many cases the application of the appropriate and helpful test would appear to result in treating personal living, and family expenses which are directly attributable to the home (and therefore not deductible) as ordinary and necessary business expenses, even though those expenses did not result in additional or incremental costs incurred as a result of the business use of the home."
6 Congress may have been particularly offended by the home office deductions claimed by employees of the Internal Revenue Service. See Bodzin v. Commissioner, 60 T. C. 820 (1973), rev'd, 509 F. 2d 679 (CA4), cert. denied, 423 U. S. 825 (1975); Sharon v. Commissioner, 66 T. C. 515 (1976), aff'd, 591 F. 2d 1273 (CA9 1978), cert. denied, 442 U. S. 941 (1979). The Senate Report also used a common example of potential abuse: "For example, if a university professor, who is provided an office by his employer, uses a den or some other room in his residence for the purpose of grading papers, preparing examinations or preparing classroom notes, an allocable portion of certain expenses . . . were incurred in order to perform these activities." S. Rep. No. 94-938, pt. 1, at 147.
7 In addition to the conditions applicable to self-employed taxpayers, an employee must demonstrate that his office is maintained "for the convenience of his employer." See 26 U. S. C. § 280A(c)(1).
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