My spouse and I started a business that we are treating as a 50/50 joint venture and filing jointly. Do both schedule C's use the same EIN?

[AlanT222]

If you are filing a joint return, you do not have to file two separate Schedules Cs for the jointly owned business. You would just file one Schedule C. 

If you are filing married filing separately, yes you would use the same EIN.  

[stevenpulido]

Originally that is what I was going to do until I got to the part about entering self-employed business info and it asked me to pick the owner of the business. I couldn't choose both of us, which is when my searches led me down this rabbit hole. I found that in order for my spouse and I both to pay into Social Security and medicare that we would have to treat the business as a partnership or a joint venture, in which the income and expenses would be split 50/50 according to our agreement. 50% of the business info would be entered twice, once reflecting me as the owner and once as my spouse.  Which is why I was wondering if I would use the same EIN for both entries.

I guess the question now, is if I put it all on one Schedule C, I still need to pick who the owner is even when filing jointly, will my spouse get credit for paying into SS and Medicare? If she won't then do I use the same EIN and enter 50% of the business info twice? 

[LeonardS]

Because you are a married couple and both materially participate in the business you are eligible to treat your business as a Qualified Joint Venture (QJV).   

A qualified joint venture is a joint venture that conducts a trade or business where:   

• The only members of the joint venture are a married couple who file a joint return;  

• Both spouses materially participate in the trade or business; and  

• Both spouses elect not to be treated as a partnership.   

You will each need to create two separate sole proprietorships on your return. You will  then split your business income and expenses between the two businesses according to ownership percentages or by participation percentages.   

The IRS has not issued any guidance on how to split the 1099-Misc when there is qualified joint venture when a 1099-Misc received is only in one of the spouse's name.   

To avoid the IRS being unable to match the 1099-Misc to their records:  

1. The entire amount should be reported as income under the Social Security Number on the 1099-Misc and entered as a 1099-Misc  

2. That spouse then would then enter, as an expense, in the Miscellaneous Expense section the amount of the 1099-MIsc Income based on the other spouse's percentage. The description on the entry would be "QJV income to spouse"  

3. The the other spouse would enter this amount as Other self-employment income.  

This link to  Election for Married Couples Unincorporated Businesses   is an the IRS web site and has information that you may find useful.   

[stevenpulido]

Ok so I would use the same EIN for both entries? The EIN pertains to the business only not the person who applied for it right? 

[CatinaT1 · Accepted solution]

The EIN is for the business.  If everything was being reported on one Schedule C, this wouldn't be an issue.  Instead, use your Social Security numbers so each of you get credit.