I'm using TT Deluxe Desktop 2020. I have both K-1 (from S-Corp) & a small, separate business that I fill out Schedule C for. This year, the Sched C business lost about $1500 and my K-1income was about 32K. I'm trying to take the 12% of utilities that I should be entitled to take (that's the percentage of my home that's used for BOTH businesses, and they're 100% done at home). In the past, I've used an accountant, so I looked at how he did it.
For 2019, the accountant's worksheet for 'Expenses for Business Use of Your Home' is almost identical to the Form 8829 (for my 2020 taxes) that I was direct to by Turbotax Deluxe, with one important exception: the accountant's worksheet used my S Corp income on his worksheet, and thus I was able to take my deductible portion of utilities even though my Sched C business for that year (2019) was also a loss. But I don't see any comparable worksheet in TT Deluxe, and the 8829 Form uses only my Sched C income. Since I have a loss, it doesn't allow me to take the home office deduction (it wants to carry it forward). If I add my K-1 income to the Sched C, then it inflates my total income because I've already entered the K-1 income -- that income, and the loss from Schedule C , both flow to Schedule 1. ( I don't think I can just NOT enter the K-1 income on Schedule 1 and enter it instead on Sched C, but maybe I'm wrong).
Since I use my home 100% for both these endeavors, I should be able to deduct home office expense if there is a net profit (which there is). The only way I found to duplicate what the accountant did in taking this deduction was to log it as an expense under a 'K-1 Additional Info' worksheet that I found in Turbotax. There's a section entitled 'Code H: Other income' which has a line 5 of 'Other nonpassive income (loss) to be reported on Schedule E, page 2'. So I entered '12% Business use of Home' and the 12% amount and TT automatically populated my Schedule 2 Nonpassive Loss field.
I would not have known about this had I not had several prior years of returns done by an accountant, and there was certainly no help from the TT instructions or 'Guide Me' portion. Is there a better way to take this deduction, maybe in a higher version of Turbotax? If not, I'll just keep doing it the way the accountant did.
