Wang Solutions

Some Light Reading for the Weekend: Updated Schedule C Instructions

.
Folks, the 2015 Tax Extension deadline is upon us!!!!  October 15 is right around the corner!!! Yikes!!!  Let’s get that Schedule C finalize and send off to your CPA or the IRS and be done with year 2015!  Let’s review some of the changes for year 2015 before you hit that “SEND” button or lick that envelope and stamps to The IRS.

For many Americans, filing taxes is a quick and painless process. For sole proprietors and the self-employed, it’s never so easy. If you’re one of these folks, you have the privilege of struggling through Schedule C, Profit or Loss from Business, and its many accompanying forms. And just when you think you’ve mastered the twists and turns of those documents, the IRS changes the instructions so you have to figure them out all over again.

.
The latest round of Schedule C instructions are available here. Small businesses that changed accounting methods to adopt repair regulations will want to check out the simplified reporting requirements. The instructions also cover deduction and capitalization of tangible property expenditures related to those repair regulations.

.
For your reading pleasure, the IRS also released updated instructions for Form 4562, Depreciation and Amortization. For tax years beginning in 2015, the maximum Section 179 expense deduction is $500,000 ($535,000 for enterprise zone property), with this limit reduced by the amount by which the cost of section 179 property placed in service during the tax year exceeds $2 million.

.
Also note that you can choose to claim a 50% special depreciation allowance for certain qualified property that you got after Dec. 31, 2007 and placed in service before Jan. 1, 2016. According to the instructions, the definition of qualified property differs for some qualified property placed in service after Dec. 31, 2015. And corporations should review the updated Form 4562 instructions, since there’s news on claiming certain unused minimum tax credits.

So if you were looking for some easy reading material to keep you occupied this weekend, today’s your lucky day!