As a self-employed person, you report income and expenses from your business or profession separately from your other income, such as income from wages. On Schedule C, you report your business income and itemize your expenses. Any net profit is subject to self-employment tax, as well as regular tax. A net profit can also be the basis of deductible contributions to a SEP or Keogh retirement plan, as discussed in Chapter 41.
If you work out of your home, you may deduct home office expenses.
If you claim a loss on Schedule C, be prepared to show that you regularly and substantially participate in the business. Otherwise, your loss may be considered a passive loss deductible only from passive income, as discussed in Chapter 10.
If you have a business loss that exceeds your other income, you may carry back the loss and claim a refund. For a loss in a tax year ending in 2012, the carryback period is generally two years (40.18).
If you have no employees and business expenses of $5,000 or less, you may be able to file a simplified schedule called Schedule C-EZ (40.6).
40.2 Reporting Self-Employed Income
40.3 Accounting Methods for Reporting Business Income
40.4 Tax Reporting Year for Self-Employed
40.5 Reporting Certain Payments and Receipts to the IRS
40.7 Deductions for Professionals
40.8 Nondeductible Expense Items
40.9 How Authors and Artists May Write Off Expenses
40.10 Deducting Expenses of a Sideline Business or Hobby
40.11 Deducting Expenses of Looking for a New Business
40.13 What Home Office Expenses Are Deductible?
40.14 Allocating Expenses to Business Use
40.15 Business Income May Limit Home Office Deductions
40.16 Home Office for Sideline Business
40.17 Depreciation of Office in Cooperative Apartment
40.18 Net Operating Losses (NOLs)
40.20 How To Report a Net Operating Loss
40.21 How To Carry Back Your Net Operating Loss
40.22 Election To Carry Forward Losses
40.23 Overview of the Domestic Production Activities Deduction
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