Client is using 1 vehicle for 3 different businesses. Are there any tricks to do the vehicle schedule, because Lacerte wouldn't let me do it. (There is an option to use 2 vehicles for 1 business, but no other way around)?
Somehow I'm seeing this 3/30/09 question only today on 4/15/09. I vaguely remember going thru a complicated setup around 10 years ago to split a vehicle into 3 different business uses, and as I vaguely recall, I had to throw in some "strange" personal usage in order to force the right numbers to come out.
I forget exactly how I did it, but I'll try to re-create it.
Let's say the car was driven a grand total of 50,000 miles for the year.
Let's say Business #1 used it 25,000 miles, Business #2 used it 10,000 miles, Business #3 used it 5,000 miles, and the remaining 10,000 miles were personal. (Let's assume all the businesses operate out of taxpayer's home so there's no commuting to complicate things.)
On Business #1 I would show the car as 25,000 miles out of 50,000, and Lacerte would figure out that 25,000 other miles were "personal" and the % of business use would be 50%.
On Business #2 I would show the car as 10,000 miles out of 50,000 and Lacerte would figure out that 40,000 other miles were "personal" and the % of business use is 20%.
On Business #3 I would show the car as 5,000 miles out of 50,000 and Lacerte would figure the other 45,000 miles as "personal" and the % of business use as 10%.
That's so easy, I must have had commuting mileage to factor in on my original 1995 taxpayer and I must have had to juggle the commuting so as not to triple-count it.
Hope this helps.
Oh, in all cases, I put the car in 3 different spots, possibly calling the cars "John's car for Balloon Business," "John's car for Electrical Business," and "John's car for Monkey Business" or whatever. They were assigned to Sch C #1, Sch C #2, and Sch C #3 (or maybe in my real-life case, one of them was to a 2106 and there were commuting miles somewhere).
FYI, neither will IRS let you do it. The same vehicle cannot be used for more than one business.
Tullio,
I respectfully disagree. I know of no reason why 1 vehicle cannot be used in more than 1 business.
Similar to Amy's method, but different, I enter 1 vehicle and direct it to 1 business. Then if 10% of those expenses go to a 2nd Sch C, I adjust (A) vehicle expense down on the first business and up on the 2nd by the appropriate amount.
Amy's method would work fine unless the total vehicle is used >50% for business, qualifying for Section 179 or accelerated depreciation. Then the individual vehicles entered would not.
