TurboTax Tips - How to Begin Preparing Schedule C in Interview Mode (Part 1) Are you a Sole Proprietor who is faced with the daunting task of preparing your own federal personal income tax return with TurboTax? Getting started on Schedule C, Profit or Loss From Business, can be somewhat intimidating, but youve got to tackle this critical form eventually. In fact, since your business is a Sole Proprietorship, the IRS mandates that you submit this form as part of your return. This article will show you what to do to begin the process of filling out Schedule C. The following instructions assume you are using the Interview mode in TurboTax, and simply take you through each screen step by step. 1. Click on the Business tab and youll be taken to a screen that is labeled Business Income and Expenses. Right below that youll see Business Income in a larger font. 2. Click on Continue in the lower right-hand corner of the screen and the next screen says Your Business Income. 3. You have two choices here: Select Specific Topics or Guide Me Through Business. Click on Select Specific Topics. 4. Next youll come to a screen with a list of five (5) topics. The first topic is Business Income and Expenses, Schedule C, Form 1099-MISC. Thats the topic you want, so click on Business Income and Expenses and a new line will pop up entitled Profit or Loss from Business. To the right youll see a Start button; click on that. 5. Next is a screen with the question Any Business Income or Expenses? In the lower right-hand corner are the words Yes and No. Click Yes. 6. Now youll come to a screen labeled Get Organized, and theres a list on this screen that will help you do just that. This list contains many of the most common types of information youll need to get started on Schedule C, such as basic info about your business (business name, address, employer identification number or EIN, if you have one), self-employment income from various sources (such as your small business, freelance work, independent contractor work, consulting or side jobs), any Forms 1099-MISC that you received for you self-employment income, income from product sales or services rendered for which you did not receive a Form 1099-MISC, info about your home office (if you have one), business expenses, miles you drove for your business, details about any business equipment you purchased (purchase date, purchase price, and a brief description of each item), and any expenses related to starting a business during the year. Heres where you may have to stop working on TurboTax and start rounding up the information listed in step 6 above. If you dont have the information from the Get Organized screen, now is the time to start working on that. So go do what you need to do to have this info handy, then come back to this screen in TurboTax to continue working on Schedule C. Looking for more small business tax tips? For a free copy of the 25-page Special Report How to Instantly Double Your Deductions visit YouSaveOnTaxes. Wayne M. Davies is author of 3 eBooks on tax reduction strategies for small business owners and the self-employed.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 09:04:30 +0000
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