Miscellaneous Expenses and Business Portion Input in TurboTax

[diabeto]

Hi there,

I'm working on my 2024 taxes for a side job selling photos on Shutterstock, in addition to my full-time job that provides a W2. It’s a very slow business, and I don’t always get paid (payments are made only after reaching a minimum of $35). I started my account in 2016 and have received two 1099-MISC forms over the years, one of which was for 2023. Motivated by the opportunity, I purchased a new camera, took more photos, and uploaded more in 2024.

This is the first time I'm trying to add business expenses. Initially, I thought I’d list the camera ($1200) under "Assets," but then I saw the guidance that suggested: "Make sure these purchases are entered as other miscellaneous expenses, not assets," once I selected "Every item I bought costs $2,500 or less."

When I attempted to enter the camera under "Other Miscellaneous Expenses" as instructed, I noticed there was no field to input the business portion or percentage of the purchase. As a result, I entered the full purchase amount ($1200) without specifying a business usage percentage.

I’m aware that if I had entered the camera as an asset, TurboTax would have prompted me to input the business portion (e.g., 55% for business use).

• My first question is whether this means the entire amount will be considered a business expense, or should I manually adjust the figure to reflect the business usage portion? Could you please clarify if TurboTax assumes 100% business use in such cases, or if I need to make adjustments elsewhere in the software to ensure my personal usage is excluded? I also have a few other expense like SD Memory Cards, Len Cap, iCloud Storage...expect I will do the same for these expense?

• I also plan to list TurboTax Premium under "Other Miscellaneous Expenses." Since I have a full-time job, I will need to pay for the Deluxe version at $69. However, to be able to work on the expense for my side gig, I need to upgrade to the $129 Premium version. Does this mean that the cost for the Tax Software expense in "Other Misc Expenses" is $129 - $69 = $60?

Thank you for your assistance!

[MinhT1]

1. You can expense assets costing less than $2,500 when you make the de minimis safe harbor election. You'll have to calculate manually the business portion of each asset. For example, if the camera costs $1,200 and the business use is 40%, you'll report $480 ($1,200 x 40%) as an expense. The same applies for accessories.

Please read this TurboTax Help article on the de minimis safe harbor election and how to claim it in TurboTax.

2. Yes , you can deduct the extra cost of TurboTax as a business expense.