As far as I know, however, that hasn't been happening. Home-office businesses don't seem to be audited any more frequently than anyone else. The IRS, however, didn't get its act together in time, so it waived penalties and extended the deadline to Dec. 31, 1997. Evidently, the IRS has problems getting the electronic filing system up and running. This year's tax law pushed deadlines back another six months.
Many companies offer educational benefits to employees.
These benefits typically cover costs of tuition, fees and, sometime, books. Traditionally, employees reported benefits as income and deducted educational expenses. The deduction, however, ran out last May. Since then, employer-paid educational costs have been income to the employee, but expenses have not been deductible to the employee. This gives you a couple of academic years to take advantage of the tax break for education.