A common business accounting question that tax practitioners often hear from small-business clients is “Why doesn't my business get a tax refund?” Taxpayers, in general, receive a refund only when they have paid more tax than was due on their return. The same is essentially true of businesses.
If your business is a partnership, LLC, or S corporation shareholder, your share of the business's losses will pass through the entity to your personal tax return. Your business loss is added to all your other deductions and then subtracted from all your income for the year.
A business loss occurs when your business has more expenses than earnings during an accounting period. The loss means that you spent more than the amount of revenue you made. But, a business loss isn't all bad—you can use the net operating loss to claim tax refunds for past or future tax years.
The IRS allows you to deduct from your taxable income a capital loss, for example, from a stock or other investment that has lost money.
Even if a business doesn't make any money, if it has employees, it's legally obligated to pay Social Security, Medicare and federal unemployment taxes. Because the federal taxes are pay as you go, businesses are required to withhold federal income taxes from each check and declare and deposit the amount withheld.
The tax law limits the amount to be carried over to 80% of your operating losses for the year. If you still have a loss after the first year, you may be able to apply the loss to additional tax years.
The IRS will only allow you to claim losses on your business for three out of five tax years. If you don't show that your business is starting to make a profit, then the IRS can prohibit you from claiming your business losses on your taxes.
If you had no income, you must file the corporation income tax return, regardless of whether you had expenses or not. The bottom line is: No income, no expenses = Filing Form 1120 / 1120-S is necessary.
First, you must determine your annual losses from your business (or businesses). Find this by tallying your business expenses and comparing it to your reported business income. Add your business loss to all your other deductions and then subtracted from all your income for the year.
Use Form 8949 to divide your transactions into long-term gains, short-term gains, long-term losses or short-term losses. A long-term investment is one that's held for more than a year according to the IRS. Use Schedule D on Form 1040.
Claiming business losses year after year
The IRS will take notice and may initiate an audit if you claim business losses year after year. They know some people claim hobby expenses as business losses, and under the tax code, that's illegal.
First, the short answer to the question of whether or not you can deduct the loss is “yes.” In the most general terms, you can typically deduct your share of the business's operating loss on your tax return.
It's perfectly legal to file a tax return even if your income falls below the IRS minimum requirement to file. If you qualify for certain tax credits but owe no tax, you might be able to claim the excess tax credit as a refund when you file your return.
The IRS allows you to deduct $5,000 in business startup costs and $5,000 in organizational costs, but only if your total startup costs are $50,000 or less. If your startup costs in either area exceed $50,000, the amount of your allowable deduction will be reduced by the overage.
The IRS provides specialized tax deductions to allow a struggling company to offset its early losses and reduce tax liability over several years. A failed business with heavy losses can lean on these tax deductions to reduce the burden on owners who've already lost significant investment money.
The IRS safe harbor rule is that if you have turned a profit in at least three of five consecutive years, the IRS will presume that you are engaged in it for profit.
Operating at a loss is when you're spending more money than is coming in to the business. Businesses often operate at a loss temporarily when starting out or in periods of growth. This is okay if you've got enough in the bank to cover the costs of running your business until your income picks up.
However, if someone controls only the result of your work, then he's a client or a customer, and you're independent and, by the IRS definition, self-employed. Whether self-employed or traditionally employed, you can claim a tax refund from the IRS.
To get a larger self-employed tax refund, you'll want to deduct all relevant business expenses as this will help you cut both self-employment tax and federal income tax. You do this on Schedule C, where you put all your income and then input information for 27 business expense categories.
If you earn less than $10,000 per year, you don't have to file a tax return. However, you won't receive an Earned-Income Tax Credit refund unless you do file.
The LLC must file Form 1120. Since a C corporation is a separate taxable entity, profits and losses don't flow to your personal return. So, you can't claim a LLC loss on your personal return.
Generally, business losses that are passed through to these owners can be used to offset other personal income. But if there is an excess business loss, it can't be used currently. Instead, it's treated as a net operating loss (NOL) carryover.
According to the IRS, a sole proprietor or independent contractor, has to file an income tax return if net earnings from self-employment were $400 or more in the year.
Disproportionate Deductions & Excessive Expenses
However, deductions that are not in line with your business model or disproportionate to your income are a significant tax audit trigger. A large increase in deductions or expenses compared with the previous year is also likely to attract attention.