OK, I think I finally figured it out. The words de minimis safe harbor election never appear as you are going through the turbo tax interview. You start as if it is a Business Asset, presumably because it has a life of more than one year. It asks YOU if you want to take the election and, if you have the courage to assume you can unilaterally make that choice regardless of the type of asset, you never need to tell it which assets the election is for (probably because it will apply to everything listed in expenses (under 2500?), without it knowing or caring if some of the expenses have lifetimes of a year or less. Then, such assets that you really did need safe harbor for, do not end up being listed as a business asset at all but, rather, you simply need to remember to go back (after entering the assets that are above $2,500 in the business assets section) to the business expense section and list them as a business expense (presumably this was not to be listed in advance because the business assets instructions tell you to not include anything already listed as a business expense) and probably it can be listed just like any other business expense and listed anywhere you care to put it, with any name you care to give it, e.g., Donald Duck, (and without ever specifying its useful life). In the forms section, you can then locate the election form there, if you know to look for it, although it is only listed by the IRS code name, until you open the form up. If one is confused, the asset in question could be listed twice, once as a business asset (although, there, you WOULD then need to choose something, perhaps something confusing like "I'll deduct the full value" (which it describes only in parentheses as a S179 deduction) and once as a business expense and TurboTax won't notice. Do I have that about right?
Thanks, folks for your comments.
