Travis H. Long, CPA, Inc. Blog

Originally published in the Cedar Street Times

January 9, 2015

In this issue, we are discussing Schedule C -Profit or Loss from Business.  Prior articles are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog if you would like to catch up on our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns.

Schedule C is generally used to report income and expenses for your self-employment activities for which no partnership exists or no entity has been established (such as a C or S-Corporation or LLC) – in other words, it is used for a sole proprietorship.  Of course there are exceptions and wrinkles to the rules.  Here are a few common ones.  In most states, a husband and wife which own and operate a business together would file a partnership return instead of a Schedule C.  However, since California is a community property state, a husband and wife should generally file two Schedule Cs and split the income and deductions based on their distributive shares, even if filing a joint return.

One important reason for doing this is that two Schedule SEs would also be filed reporting the Social Security and Medicare taxes separately for each spouse.  They would each be subject to the full taxable wage base for Social Security, but they would also each receive credit for their earnings which would figure into their Social Security checks in retirement.

An LLC with only one member that is operating a business would also report the business activity on a Schedule C instead of a 1065 Partnership return.  Since you can’t have a partnership between you and yourself, the formal entity structure is disregarded for federal tax purposes and reported like a sole proprietorship.  In community property states such as California, a husband and wife that both own and operate the business are actually considered one member for LLC purposes.  If they were the only two owners, the entity would be disregarded, but they would then report on two Schedule Cs as discussed above.

Now that we have discussed who uses the form, let’s move to the form itself.  The initial section of Schedule C asks for identifying information – the name of the business, the type of business, address, etc.  If you have an employer identification number you can enter that as well.  This would be required if you have employees on payroll.  You can also obtain one if you simply do not want to hand out your Social Security number whenever a formal taxpayer identification number is needed – such as for filing 1099-Misc forms for independent contractors.

There are also some other direct questions regarding your basis of accounting, level of participation, and filing compliance.  Most small businesses under $10 million in annual revenues operate by the cash method of accounting as it has many advantages.  Material participation is a tightly defined standard  by the IRS which can affect your ability to take losses in a down year.  The questions on 1099 filings are loaded questions designed to help the IRS easily identify businesses that are not filing required 1099s for payments to independent contractors, for interest received, etc.

In Part I Income, you list your gross receipts, subtract sales returns and allowances, subtract cost of goods sold (which are detailed in Part III) and then add other income such as interest income or certain credits.  Part III Cost of Goods Sold is mainly geared towards retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers.  It provides a place to detail beginning and ending inventory and any associated labor and material costs associated with production of the goods.  Even taxpayers on a cash basis are generally required to track inventory.  Cash basis typically means you get the deduction when you spend the cash, and you record the income when you get the cash.  But with inventory, you do not get the deduction until the inventory is sold or disposed.

In Part II you detail all your expenses.  The instructions to Schedule C do a pretty good job of explaining what types of expenses they want on each line.  Some of the lines are supported by additional forms such Form 4562 Depreciation and Amortization feeding into Schedule C line 13 for Depreciation.  Line 24b for Meals and Entertainment is unique as most qualified meals and entertainment are allowed only a 50 percent deduction.  Another unique aspect is that preset per diem rate deductions are allowed for self-employed individuals (and employees) for meals, entertainment, and incidental expenses in lieu of tracking actual receipts.  Some of these per diems are quite generous depending on the location of travel, and taxpayers can sometimes get a much larger deduction than the amount they actually spend.

Line 30 for expenses for business use of your home is another example where an entirely separate form (Form 8829) is used to calculate the deduction.  There is also an alternative simplified method introduced with the 2013 returns that gives you $5 square foot for business space (up to $1,500) without having to track actual expenses on Form 8829.

Line 32 contains a few questions about whether your investment in the business is “at-risk” or not.  Basically they are asking if you are financially liable if things go south, and could you lose the money you have injected into the business in the past.  This affects your ability to take losses in down years.

Part IV details your vehicle deduction for standard mileage rate users.  For 2014, this amount is 56 cents a mile.  If you track actual expenses instead, you would not fill out this part.

Part V is for any additional expenses not discussed in Part II.

In two weeks we will continue our Back to Basics series with Schedule D – Capital Gains and Losses

Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.