de minimis safe harbor for 2 Schedule C businesses

[tagteam]

@bruce93 

You're most welcome and you marked them both.

Best of luck!

[bruce93]

Just a follow-up to note a couple TurboTax (Win desktop) behaviors and indicate my final decision after another Program Help session with a very helpful TurboTax rep:

With a shared screen, we started from my return with a modified name version of the TurboTax "de minimis safe harbor election" form (titled "Section 1.263(a)-1(f)..."), which had just my name and dba, and my SSN.   We then used the Q&A method to opt for a de minimis election form within my wife's Sch C business depreciation topic, and noted that the existing election form just described was not changed, and a second election form (hopefully with my wife's Sch C info) was not generated at all.  We also verified that a second de minimis election form could not be added from Forms Mode.

We then noted that my workaround of adding the "Blank Form" in Forms Mode, then filling it in to replicate my existing TurboTax election form (except for using my wife's name, dba, and her SSN), was indeed included in the "Official Forms for Filing" PDF generated in the Print Center (after setting up to e-file our 1040).  She said that its presence there indicated it would be submitted to IRS as part of the e-file.  Her confidence in this was high, noting that the "Blank Form" is sometimes needed to attach other statements or supporting details for certain tax situations.

So my final decision was to use the Blank Form to create a separate replica de minimis election form for my wife's Sch C business, and stick with my existing modified TurboTax election form for my Sch C business.  This is consistent with the separate election forms I've filed in past years (e.g. TY2022 using TaxAct).

If anyone from TurboTax is reading this, future versions need to be able to generate a separate de minimis election form for each person on a joint return (according to my reading of the tax rules, and precedent).

[AmeliesUncle]

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@bruce93 wrote:

We then noted that my workaround of adding the "Blank Form" in Forms Mode, then filling it in to replicate my existing TurboTax election form (except for using my wife's name, dba, and her SSN), was indeed included in the "Official Forms for Filing" PDF generated in the Print Center (after setting up to e-file our 1040).  She said that its presence there indicated it would be submitted to IRS as part of the e-file.  Her confidence in this was high, noting that the "Blank Form" is sometimes needed to attach other statements or supporting details for certain tax situations.

I have no first-hand knowledge of this, but previous posts that I've seen have indicated that the "blank form" is NOT included with the e-file.  But as I said, I don't have any knowledge of how the e-file programming works, just what has been said on other posts on this forum.

[tagteam]

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@AmeliesUncle wrote:
I have no first-hand knowledge of this, but previous posts that I've seen have indicated that the "blank form" is NOT included with the e-file.....

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I don't have firsthand knowledge either, but I have seen those same previous posts and I have a screenshot from a test return (below). 

Note that if you scroll down (which I did), you would see both the election statement and the blank form under "All official forms required for filing". 

So, since when are the TurboTax filing instructions and estimated tax vouchers "required for filing"? Hence, my distrust that the blank form actually is transmitted with the rest of the return when e-filing. 

This is just my opinion but if one wants to be cautious, then prudence would dictate that the return be printed and mailed.

[bruce93 · Accepted solution]

You were both right to be skeptical regarding the Blank Form.  I happened to click on the program help at the top of the window when my Blank Form was open, and it brought up context sensitive help for that form.  It specifically states that Blank Form is NOT included in an e-file, and is only for paper filing.  So much for counting on definitive information from the TurboTax reps <sigh>.  So I switched to tagteam's suggestion of putting both names with their respective SSNs on the Name line of the de minimis safe harbor election form, and deleted the Blank Form.  I don't want to wait for what turned out to be a significant refund this year, so I'll take the probably small risk of not using 2 separate election forms this year. 

By the way, TurboTax also limits you to a single instance of the Blank Form.  Dumb!

Thanks again for your help and prescient advice.

THE END

[tagteam]

@bruce93 

I suspect you'll be fine.

As @AmeliesUncle wrote: "the election needs to state the name AND identification number of each "member" corporation." 

Note that the Regulation does not state that separate election forms need to be used for each "member"; just that the election statement needs to have the names and tax IDs (which, logically, could be done with one election form).