Multiple Sch Cs, Same Car/Home Office Expense Treatment

[mrscpa]

If taxpayer has multiple sch c's, can I keep adding the same car and home office information as a deduction for each sch c? Or am I only supposed to enter it on one sch c only so it's not double dipping on auto/depreciation expenses for both home and car? 

For example, when I click on the 2nd sch c to add home office, the home is listed but it's linked to the 1st sch c.... do I add the home office AGAIN so it can be linked to the 2nd sch c too?

[TaxGuyBill · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can add one for each business.

For the vehicle, the program already prorates the expenses based on the mileage you enter for that business.  So there would not be any 'double dipping'.

For the home office, I would just manually prorate the square footage of the home office.  For example, if it was 300 square feet and used equally for three business, I would enter it as a Home Office of 100 square feet for each business.  Then the program will take the appropriate prorated deduction.  You can name it something slightly different, such a "Home Office A" and "Home Office B".

Actually, if all businesses were profitable and the home office deduction isn't obscenely large, I would probably just 'cheat' and just enter the entire home office under the largest business, and call it 'close enough'.  CAGMC.

[mrscpa]

Hi Bill! Thank you soooooooooooo much for answering my question, you have no idea how much this is helping me 🙂 You are the best. I will continue on with adding the auto/home for both sch c's. Also, thanks for the quick recommendation, comes out to the same in the end, good idea!