Film Production Deduction 181

[ldlittman]

My husband and I are producing our own film from our savings. I have always done our taxes myself. Hubby is self employed so I am very familiar with the workings of Schedule C.  But I am not familiar with what I need to do to claim this 181 deduction. We have created an LLC for the film which we will fund with our own money. We certainly won't make money this year as we are just making the film and we don't expect we will ever make money or see a return, although it would be nice in future years. Do I create another Schedule C for this?...which will be a total loss for sure this first year. Plus, we may have others invest during post production. Is this going to be super complicated? Do I need to hire an accountant to help me with this? Can I hire someone at turbo tax to walk me through it all when I do the taxes next year for this? Also, do I need to do some kind of separate tax return for an LLC? As you see, I am not experienced with this at all. I'd rather not hire an accountant as I'm pretty good at doing all of this if I know the rules. I'd love to hire experts at Turbo Tax to help next year if that is possible.  Please advise.

[DaveF1006 · Accepted solution]

Yes, you will need to create a separate Schedule C for the LLC.  It shouldn't be complicated if you prepared returns in the past.  The 181 Film Deduction is an expense you can deduct on your Schedule C as a miscellaneous expense.

If you have others invest, these become additional partners and you will need to report this on a 1065 Partnership return rather than a Schedule C 1040. This is because, you will pay out distributions to these partners and these partners will need to report these distributions on their returns. Make sure you maintain a good set of books. 

You can hire an accountant for the first year or you can use Turbo Tax Full service to prepare your return if you prepare on Turbo Tax Online and prepare a Schedule C.  Turbo Tax full service is not available at this time for the preparation of the 1065 partnership returns.

My suggestion, since it sounds like a simple return for the first year, is to prepare the Schedule C itself since it sounds like you may experience a loss. Once you gain the additional partners and need to change forms, then you may wish to make an evaluation at that time whether to hire CPA or prepare the return on your own. Turbo Tax does prepare 1065 return in its Turbo Tax Business products. Here is a link to the product that explains the product in detail and how to order.