mileage tax deduction for a couple that both drove for doordash

[CHamersma56]

My daughter and her husband both drove for door dash last year, my daughter for a little while and her husband drove pretty much all year. I put in the mileage for both of them separate for each one. When Turbo Tax added it to their schedule C's it added both to my daughters and just his to his schedule C. Is this right and why?  

[SundayInSalem]

That doesn’t sound right. If two self-employed people use the same car, the business mileage should be different for each person, but the total miles on the car should be the same.

For example, if your daughter had 1,000 business miles and her husband had 9,000 business miles and the total miles (business and personal) was 12,000) then:

• Your daughter would report 1,000 business miles and 12,000 total miles
• Her husband would report 9,000 business miles and 12,000 total miles.

Go back to the Vehicle section and check the total miles and miles driven just for self-employment work for both your daughter and her husband.

[CHamersma56]

It was 2 different cars and Turbo Tax put both cars on my daughters schedule C and the right car on her husband's schedule C. when I tried taking it off it gave me an error and the tax went up. So we submitted it knowing we could send an amended form and the IRS accepted it. Do you think there is a glitch in turbo tax? The only other thing that might have anything to do with it is we fill a Injured spouse form 8379 due to her husband has his part of his taxes collected for past debts.

[Critter-3]

Since the daughter MUST file her own tax return (even if she is a dependent) then how could the program possibly mix up her & dad's Sch C deductions ?    Remove the child's income & expenses  from the parent's return to resolve your issue. 

[CHamersma56]

This was on my daughter and her husband return in which they filed married. Turbo Tax let's you file up to 5 returns so I help them every year. I do not claim her as a dependent and file a separate return along with my wife.

[SundayInSalem]

TurboTax carries some information over from 2020. If your daughter used the “wrong” car for DoorDash last year and switched to a new car this year, TurboTax will transfer the basic info about the old car into the vehicle section of your daughter’s business.

You would have to add a second car to get two cars there. TurboTax could not do this by itself, because it doesn't know anything about a second car.

You would see the old car in the Vehicle Summary and would have had to Add Another Vehicle to put a second car onto your daughter’s Vehicle Summary.

The Vehicle Summary also has a trash can to delete the “wrong” car on the same screen that you would use to add the second car.