Unfortuantely, you can't do that and not get audited down the road (24-36 months). Since you did not report your business as sold, closed or otherwise disposed of on your 2015 tax return, the IRS is expecting a SCH C from you this year. So you need to file one even if there's no income or expenses to report on it, for the sole purpose of reporting to the IRS your disposition of that business. Here's how.
Closed SCH C Business
You need to report your business as "sold or otherwise disposed of".
Start working through your business "as if" you still own it. On the 2nd or 3rd screen in select the option for "I sold, closed or otherwise disposed of this business in 2016". If prompted for the date, enter the day after you last day of business in 2016. If you closed your business in 2015, then use a date of 1/1/2016.
If your business had no income in the tax year, you can not leave the business income section blank. You 'must' enter a digit, even if that digit is a ZERO.
If you had no business expenses, then you can leave that blank and don't even have to work that section through, if you don't want to.
If your business carried an inventory, the end of year (EOY) inventory must be zero. If it's not, then in the COGS section indicate that you removed all of the remaining inventory for personal use. that effectively makes your EOY inventory balance, zero.
If your business had assets, then you must show the disposition of those assets. In the Business Assets section work through each individual asset on at a time, and select YES on the screen, "DId you stop using this asset in 2016?". Then on the next screen, "Special Handling Required?" if you sold the asset, select no and you will be prompted for your sales information on that specific asset. If you did NOT sell the asset, click the YES button. You must do this for each individual asset listed, even if it's already fully depreciated.
If you claimed any vehicle expenses in your business at any time from the day you opened your business, then you must most show the disposition of that vehicle. Work through the Business Vehicle Expenses section and indicate that you stopped using that asset in the business, when prompted. Then show your disposition of that vehicle. Most likely, you'll indicate that it was removed for personal use.
Once you have done all the above, that will make the 2016 tax year the last year you will file a SCH C for this specific business. If done correctly, then next year you will not be prompted or forced to use SCH C. The key words for this is, "IF DONE CORRECTLY". So if you get prompted next year, it's because you either indicated that you DO have business income for 2017, or you did not property and completely report the disposition of your business and all assets and inventory on the 2016 return.
