My hobby expenses are 2200, my income is 3300. My 2% of agi is 1655, why am I not able to deduct anything ??

[Phillip1 · Accepted solution]

Hobby expenses are not subject to the 2% of AGI floor. You should be able to deduction all of your hobby expenses. The only reason you may not be "technically" deducting the hobby expenses is if your itemized deductions are less than the standard deduction.

Check line 40 of your Form 1040 to see if you are taking the standard deduction or whether you are itemizing.

The other problem (possible, but not the most probable issue) could be that you may be entering the hobby expenses in the wrong section. To report hobby income and expenses in TurboTax, follow this path in the program:

1. Go to the Federal Taxes category (or Personal) in TurboTax.
2. Go to the Wages and Income (or Personal Income) subcategory.
3. In the Your 2016 Income Summary, find the section labeled Less Common Income.
4. Click start or update on the line labeled Miscellaneous Income, 1099-A, 1099-C.
5. Click start or update on the line labeled Hobby Income and Expenses.
6. Enter your hobby income and all of your expenses in a lump-sum figure. If the expenses are more than the income, you can simply enter the income amount on both lines (TurboTax will apply the limitations regardless of what you enter).

[browncouches]

I am guessing it must be due to the standard vs itemizing then, because we are itemizing. If our itemizing is less than standard, would we be better off to do a standard deduction then? (ie more money back?)

[browncouches]

it says that our itemizing gets us more money back than standard, so I am at a loss for why my hobby expenses are not deductible then. They are over the 2% of agi, and we are itemizing, and our itemizing gets us more money than standard deduction, I entered my hobby numbers in the correct spot... now what??