You will be able to use TurboTax to file both your business and personal tax returns, but which version of TurboTax you will use depends on any elections you have made on how to treat your LLC.
An LLC is a state designation, which in the eyes of the IRS is called a "disregarded entity". If your business is a sole-member LLC, and you have not made any election for your LLC to be treated as either an S or C Corporation for tax purposes, then you do not need a separate return for your business taxes. Your business income will use Schedule C to report business income and expenses, which is attached to your Form 1040. This return may be filed using TurboTax Self-Employed. (TurboTax Self-Employed Live is an enhanced version; you pay a premium to have TurboTax experts guide you through the filing process; they can even verify your work for you). It is more likely than not that you will file your taxes with this method.
However, there are three possibilities that would require you to use TurboTax Business (downloadable software), to prepare the business return first. They are as follows:
Multi-member LLC. If your LLC is composed of more than just you, then the default treatment of the IRS for this disregarded entity is a partnership. A Partnership must make a separate business return first using Form 1065. The income generated by the business is "passed through" to the individual partners and reported on Schedules K-1, which are then used to report the Partnership income on the personal return.
Election to be treated as a Chapter "S" Corporation. Either a sole or multi-member LLC may make an election (Form 2553) to be treated as an S Corporation for business taxation. If you have made this election, you should have also been paying yourself reasonable compensation (wages and salary) throughout the year from your business income. To have made this election, you would have needed to file Form 2553 previously and have received an acceptance letter from the IRS. Similar to a partnership, the business income of an S Corp is reported on Form 1120S, and each "shareholder" receives a Schedule K-1 to report their passed-through share of the corporate income.
Election to be treated as a "C" Corporation. Either a sole or multi-member LLC may make an election on Form 8832 to be treated as a C Corporation for business taxation. Like an S Corporation, a C Corporation will file its business taxes using its own form, Form 1120 (not 1120S). Unlike an S-Corp or Partnership, the income is not passed through to the shareholders or partners via Schedule K-1. Rather, the corporation itself is taxed, and from there can issue dividends which are reported and taxed (a second time) on the individual tax return.
A Partnership, S Corp or C Corp return would need to use TurboTax Business first before preparing the personal return. But your situation sounds like it is likely a Sole-member LLC that has not made an election. If so, you will be able to use a version of TurboTax Self-Employed to complete your entire return.
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