Removing business

[zimmerpeople]

For the past several years, we have included our small business with our personal taxes.  It is time for the business to file its own return.  What are the best practices to get that done smoothly?

[DawnC]

Do you have a partnership that you have elected to be treated as a qualified joint venture?  Only sole-proprietorships, single-member LLCs, and qualified joint ventures can be claimed on your personal taxes.  

You would need TurboTax Business to file for Partnerships, S Corp, C Corp, or a multi-member LLC.

Sole proprietorships:

• Are owned by one person—you don't have any partners
• Are unincorporated—you haven't filed any legal forms to incorporate your business
• Have no legal distinction between the owner and the business—you are entitled to all the income, but also must pay the bills, including taxes

A married couple can be considered sole proprietors when they elect on their 1040 to treat their jointly owned and operated business as a qualified joint venture.

Organizations that aren't sole-proprietorships:

• Partnership
• Corporation
• S Corporation
• Limited Liability Company (LLC), except a single-member LLC that doesn't elect to be treated as a corporation

Business Structures

[Carl]

Lets slow down and take this one thing at a time.

For the past several years, we have included our small business with our personal taxes

By the wording of your post, it seriously lacks some much needed clarity. A business owned by "we" can not be reported on a personal 1040 tax return unless "we" is married to each other, file a joint tax return and live in a community property state. But even then, it depends on what type of business "we" own even if you do live in a community property state.

So for starters, what state are you in?
Next, what type of business are we talking about here? a multi-member LLC? (or a single member LLC and "we" really means "one of us"?) A partnership? Qualified Joint Venture? S-Corp? C-Corp?

It is time for the business to file its own return.

I really can't see a problem with providing you guidance that will actually be useful and helpful to you, once you've answered the above so we can establish a starting point. But I will need just a few details on just what your business does. Do you sell product? Do you provide services? Maybe your business manages rental or commercial properties owned by others? Maybe it's rental real estate that you own? Maybe I'm so far off base they you can't stop laughing at this point? 🙂