Depreciating a Car across Two Buisnesses

db792 · ‎June 4, 2021

My partner and I are both self-employed (in different businesses), and since we're unmarried we file separately (both with Schedule C). We will be acquiring a new car since it was a good year, and we'd both like to claim the (substantial) depreciation deduction, according to each of our respective business use of the car. Is this possible? The car will likely only be registered in one person's name.

Critter-3 · ‎June 4, 2021

Yes you can each take your respective expenses on your individual tax returns however between the 2 returns you cannot take more than 100% of the total.

db792 · ‎June 14, 2021

Thanks!

I've seen elsewhere that a car should only be depreciated on one Schedule C - do you agree? If it's depreciated across multiple businesses, though, neither business will have >50% business use of the car, so no bonus/special depreciation would be available and the 5-year SL schedule is used, or do we just override TurboTax to calculate the depreciation ourselves since the overall vehicle use is >50% business?

Depreciating a Car across Two Buisnesses

Deductions & credits

Deductions & credits