Yes. You
can still claim your real estate agent expenses, even though you had no income. A loss in your business can offset income in other areas of your return and reduce taxes/increase refund.
You
can deduct expenses as long as you can prove that you opened or were in
business in the year expenses were incurred. To be deductible, a business
expense must be both ordinary and necessary. Please note that if you do not
have profit for three out of five years, IRS might question your profit motive.
As
a real estate agent, you are considered to be self-employed. You report both income (if
any) and expenses on Schedule C/Business Income & Expenses.
TurboTax
will guide you step by step through the process.
·
Type in business expenses in
the search box in the right hand corner of your screen
·
Click jump to business
expenses.
If
you do have some income you can enter it on the same page.
Here's a good sampling of expenses for real estate agent from realtor.org that you may find helpful:
http://realtormag.realtor.org/sales-and-marketing/sponsored/intuit/9-tax-deductions-every-real-estat...
