Can I count the hours of my operation even when children are not present?

No. Some providers argue that if their hours of operation are from 6am to 6pm they ought to be able to count twelve hours when calculating their Time-Space Percentage, even if children are not present for some of the hours and even if they are not conducting any other business activity in their home.

I believe that it's not reasonable to count twelve hours simply because they are the stated hours of your operation. If so, a provider could say her hours of operation were from 6am to 5am and count twenty-three hours!

The Time-Space Percentage is used to determine how much of house-related expenses can be deducted as business expenses. Hours children are present count. Hours a provider is working in her home on any business activity when children are not present count.

In these cases the home is being used for a business purpose. Merely being open doesn't rise to this level.