STORAGE FEE FOR A BOAT for a charter business_also a Line 27 item?

[mahimahimom]

Should I put the dry slip storage fee for a boat also on Line 27 Schedule C?

It seems such a common expense.  

Yet it doesn't fit under any of the categories / lines on Schedule C.

I think Storage should be a line on its own! 

There must be 100s of 1000s of Americans (businesses) storing items, and vehicles and big tools and so on,

on other people's property, so it is not a rent, otherwise the fee could go under Lease or Rent Line 20b.

My son stored his boat on a someone's personal property.  Now how do I deduct that expense?

My list of "Other Expenses" is already getting so loooooong .... 

[VolvoGirl]

Sure you can use line 27 if nothing else fits.  

[mahimahimom]

Thank you.  And I will.

It is just that my Line 27 is getting so long.  
It just doesn't feel right that so many items end up there.

[Mike9241]

rent line 20b would also be appropriate and perhaps you are doing too fine of a breakdown in expenses.

you may want to read the schedule C instructions as to what may go on each line

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sc.pdf 

[mahimahimom]

Nope.  I don't think I am using a too fine of a comb in filling in the expenses.

This is from the Instructions to Schedule C, Line 20:

"Enter on line 20b amounts paid to
rent or lease other property, such as office space in a building"

Also, reading Line 20b on the very Schedule C itself:

"20 Rent or lease (see instructions):
a Vehicles, machinery, and equipment 20a
b Other business property "

The Schedule C itself, clearly says:

BUSINESS property.

Surely the word BUSINESS is in there for a reason!

1000s working at the IRS and many smart heads busying themselves with the design of the Schedule C too ...

Therefore, putting faith in all those government workers 😉 ....

I am counting on them knowing what they're doing, and there being a purpose behind the word BUSINESS.

The word BUSINESS specifically excludes a situation
where a boat is put to the side of someone's home (a person - not a business) 1 mile from the marina.

Therefor I don't think it goes there.

And I don't want to implicate regular, ordinary, helpful citizens as though they're running a storage business or something, when they're just people looking for a little bit of extra money to help pay the bill, 

while this want has been a huge, crucial help for my son to run his charter business and stay in business.

He is young, just starting out his business.

No way he could afford a slip at a marine like a wealthy yacht owner who doesn't blink at paying 6k or way more for his yacht slip.  

My son doesn't make that much.   No that yacht slip if the yacht were rented out:

That would go on 20b.

Because the marina's and docking places at and near the marina: they ARE businesses.

That would be comparable with renting office space as in the IRS example in the instructions.

[mahimahimom]

* Now... that yacht slip if the yacht were rented out:

That would go on 20b.

[mahimahimom]

Now ...  that yacht slip - if the yacht were rented out:

That would go on 20b.

Meaning, if the yacht was part of /an asset of a charter business that files a Schedule C,

AND the yacht slip was located on a property at a marine ALSO owned by (another) business,

THEN, that slip expense would go on 20b.

That would be rented BUSINESS property.

I find that the wording of Line 20b clearly indicates that,

but excludes, slip fees at NON BUSINESS places from Line 20b on Schedule C.

Now if I am wrong, please let me know.

It would be very nice to shorten the long list I already have for Line 27 Other Expenses (Line 48)

[TomD8]

From the expanded IRS instructions for Line 20b, Schedule C:

"Enter on line 20b amounts paid to rent or lease other property, such as office space in a building."

https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sc#en_US_2023_publink24329wd0e1653

If the slip rental fee is an ordinary and necessary expense for a charter boat business, then it clearly goes to Line 20b.  It's clearly "other property".

[mahimahimom]

TomD8,

So you are saying that "business" in the Line 20b as verbatim on Schedule C

"20 Rent or lease (see instructions): [...] b Other business property "

refers to not the "business" one rents or leases FROM, but the "business that is doing the leasing or renting"?

Versus how I interpret it by putting the Line 20b together with the Instruction to Line 20b:

"business" in "Other business property", refers to property of another business.

I figured hence the example in the Instructions of renting an office in an office building.

Obviously, office buildings are owned by other businesses, not generally private persons, ordinary people.

So then the business owner rents from another business owner whose business has that business property.

That's how I see it.  

It's quite a crummy, one little example in the Instructions to Schedule C, Line 20.  

If it was done better, we wouldn't be having to discuss and guestimate what it means.  

[mahimahimom]

And yes, the rental fee is an ordinary and necessary expense for a charter boat business.   

If you own a boat for the charter business, the boat has to be somewhere...

I'd say, when it is a wet slip, you'd more call it a rental fee.

If it's a spot, on dry land next to someone house in the yard, in a neighborhood that allows boats in the yards,

it's more like a storage fee.

I think, though theoretically and technically, reading whatever was issued by the IRS, the Line itself, to begin with, I do not agree with you, I am still going to put the storage & rental fees on Line 20b. 

Just because I already have so much on Line 27.  And because apparently it is not undisputed, what goes on there and so that will be my cover for still putting it on there, though I don't agree with myself.

I read somewhere that a lot of items on Line 27 might be a red flag / audit trigger.

Though I am quite certain I would come through one, it's a big headache and a ton of work while I'm already pressed for time. 

So I am letting that goal (avoid audit) trump over being technically correct.

[mahimahimom]

* over, perhaps, being technically correct.

[TomD8]

"I am still going to put the storage & rental fees on Line 20b."

That is the correct line for those expenses.

[mahimahimom]

All the charter boat and (charter boat trailer!)

storage and - rental payments

are being sum totaled and

going on Line 20b!