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whit09
New Member

I bought my wife a new phone for her self employed business but also uses it for personal. Is the cost of the physical phone deducible under De Minimis Expense Threshold?

I bought my wife a new iPhone for her business but she uses it for personal use as well. Quickbooks is telling me this is a business asset that falls under the safe harbor De Minimis Expense Threshold. If the phone was $800, is all $800 deductible as a business asset or only a portion because there is some personal use as well? All the questions I could find regarding this were questions about cell phone "costs" which most questions are referring to you month bill. I want to know about the actual physical phone cost, not the bill. 

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1 Reply
MarilynG
Expert Alumni

I bought my wife a new phone for her self employed business but also uses it for personal. Is the cost of the physical phone deducible under De Minimis Expense Threshold?

If she uses the phone 80% for business (for instance) you can deduct 80% of the cost of the phone and 80% of the monthly bill as business expenses.

When you enter a business asset, TurboTax will ask the Cost and the Business Use %.

However, you are correct that you can deduct the new phone as a one-time Business Expense, rather than setting it up as a Business Asset.  

In this case, you would enter the business portion of the phone cost in the Business Expenses section (see screenshot).

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