Business & farm

It sounds like you and your husband's businesses are being "aggregated" on the same QBI Component worksheet, i.e., treated as a single business for qualified business income (QBI) deduction purposes. If so, you will see both your Schedule C businesses listed under Business Name in the table just below where an explanation is being requested.

If you do want to aggregate these Schedule C businesses, enter a brief description of the business enterprise, and explain why it meets the IRS aggregation rules at this link:

1. You or a group of persons directly or indirectly own 50% or more of each trade or business for a majority of the tax year, including the last day of the tax year, and all trades or businesses use the same tax year end;

2. None of the trades or businesses are an SSTB; and

3. The trades or businesses meet at least two of the following factors:

• They provide products, property, or services that are the same or that are customarily offered together.
• They share facilities or share significant centralized business elements such as personnel, accounting, legal, manufacturing, purchasing, human resources, or information technology resources.
• They are operated in coordination with, or reliance upon, one or more of the businesses in the aggregated group.

If you do not want to aggregate these Schedule C businesses, here is how to “un-aggregate” them in TurboTax Online: 

1. Go to Delete a Form: In the left menu, select the dropdown arrow next to Tax Tools and then under that select Tools; in the pop-up window Tool Center, choose Delete a form.
2. Find the QBI Component form for the aggregated businesses.  Delete that QBI Component sheet.
3. Now, go to Review and start the review routine.
4. You will have an error for each business that no longer has a QBI Component form.  For each of those businesses, you will see the Schedule C form for that business. It will be highlighted for Question A in the Qualified Business Income Deduction Smart Worksheet.
5. Double click in the highlighted Question A box, and you will get a pop-up asking you to link to a QBI component worksheet.  Create a new copy for that business (e.g., give it the name of that business).
6. Continue until you have created a separate QBI component worksheet for each Schedule C you do not want to aggregate.
7. If in TurboTax Online you do not get the highlighted Question A box, go back through the interview questions for each Schedule C and TurboTax will create a new QBI Component worksheet for that business.

If you are using a Download/CD version of TurboTax, you can use Forms mode to delete the QBI Component worksheet, and then find that Question A box in the Qualified Business Income Deduction Smart Worksheet below line 48 on the Schedule C form.  Use the QuickZoom button or double-click the box to link your Schedule C to its "own" QBI Component worksheet.