SMALL BUSINESS

Help for Home Office: If you work at home and have questions about regulations and tax laws concerning your business, you can call the Home Office and Business Opportunities Assn. at 261-9474. Debra Schacher--who runs her marketing firm, Dare to Dream Enterprises, out of her Irvine house--founded the association two years ago to address the special needs of home-based employees.

Currently, Schacher’s main focus is a Supreme Court decision last January that ruled against allowing business deductions for home offices for “people who do not do most of their actual work from home.” She complains that the ruling is too restrictive because many home-based business people, such as herself, spend much of their time outside the office meeting with clients.

“We need to unite our efforts and write our congressmen in opposition to what I believe is a lack of understanding as to what the home-based business owner is all about,” Schacher said.