Mercury Is Self-Employed and She Uses a Room in Her

question 23

Essay

Mercury is self-employed and she uses a room in her home as her principal place of business. She meets clients there and doesn't use the room for any other purpose. The size of her home office is 400 square feet. The size of her entire home is 2,400 square feet. During the year, Mercury received $6,300 of gross income from her business activities and she reported $2,500 of business expenses unrelated to her home office. For her entire home in the current year, she reported $3,500 of mortgage interest, $1,000 of property taxes, $600 of insurance, $500 of utilities and other operating expenses, and $3,200 of depreciation expense. What amount of home office expenses is Mercury allowed to deduct in the current year using the actual expense method? Indicate the amount and type of expenses she must carry over to the next year, if any. What amount of home office expenses is Mercury allowed to deduct in the current year using the simplified method?

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Definitions:

Higher-Order Conditioning

A form of conditioning where a stimulus is paired with a previously conditioned stimulus, leading to a response even without the presence of the original, unconditioned stimulus.

Stimulus Substitution

A concept in conditioning where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response.

Fixed Interval

A reinforcement schedule that rewards the first response following the passage of a specified time interval.

Variable Interval

A schedule of reinforcement where a response is rewarded after an unpredictable amount of time has passed, leading to a steady rate of response.