w-2 income with schedule c expenses

[lschiebeld]

My husband works in the construction field as a w2 employee. He has construction deductions that we will claim on a schedule C.

My question is this.

 Is it acceptable to have a schedule C with no income? leaving a negative balance?

 or is there a way to make the schedule-C connect with the W-2, such as in the instance, if the Box 13 statutory employee were checked?

[Mike9241]

you are correct. if the statutory employee box on the w-2 is checked (by the employer)  he would be treated as an independent contractor and business expenses would be reported on schedule C.  Otherwise, for the years 2018 through 2025, employee business expenses are not allowed for federal income tax purposes. it would be improper to report these expenses on your federal return. Your state, if it has an income tax, may allow such deductions. 

[AmeliesUncle]

A construction worker is not a type of job that is eligible to have the Statutory Employee box checked.

As a W-2 employee, you can not file a Schedule C for those job expenses.  Expenses for his W-2 job are not deductible on the Federal tax return (although a few states may allow it, in certain circumstances).

[xmasbaby0]

Sorry---W-2 employees cannot deduct job-related expenses on a federal return.  Job-related expenses were eliminated as a federal deduction for W-2 employees by the tax laws that changed for 2018 and beyond.  Your state tax laws might be different in AL, AR, CA, HI, MN, NY or PA.

If you live in a state that lets you deduct job-related expenses, the information will flow from your federal return  to the state return, so enter it in Federal>Deductions and Credits>Employment Expenses>Job-Related Expenses

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-credits-deductions/employees-deduct-...