I have a notary business and no other income. I also have a living trust which includes my home. I am lost as to how I should file my income taxes and what steps I should take to avoid pitfulls when filing next year. Should I call you directly? :)

[ronaldg11]

Hi JUMAGI,

Please see the info and links below for how to handle the notary business and the living trust.

For your notary business:

Schedule C is used to calculate your business income for the portion of the year that you were self-employed—all the income your business took in, less business expenses. The resulting number is what you’ll use to calculate your self-employment tax on Schedule SE and what you’ll report on your Form 1040 as income. If your expenses were $5,000 or less, you can use Schedule C-EZ instead.

You must report all your sources of income to the IRS on your tax return, even if you don’t receive a 1099 form from your customers. If you were close in estimating what you would owe when you completed Form 1040-ES and made those quarterly payments on time, you shouldn't owe the IRS much (if any) additional tax.

Always go back over your tax return to make sure you deducted every business expense you were entitled to. Look for differences between your estimated expenses at the time you completed Form 1040-ES and what they actually turned out to be. If you were wrong in your forecast for either income or expenses, you can adjust going forward into the new year.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/self-employment-taxes/self-employed-less-than-a-year-how-to-do-...

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/self-employment-taxes/the-self-employment-tax/L8xXjolB4

For the Living Trust:

For a living trust, you can use whichever TurboTax personal program that suits your tax situation. There is no special tax form for living trusts; the trust's income and deductions are reported on your personal tax return.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/choosing-a-product/help/which-turbotax-do-i-need-to-file-a-return-...

Hope this helps,

Ron G.