–My wife has a 40/hr office job, plus does independent consulting out of the house in Education.
–I am self-employed, with my own office, plus I work out of the house as a writer.

Thanks to great answers on this board, I’ve about got a handle on how to do my taxes. But wanted to get some verification on my approach, with one follow-up question:

Based on the above, we will both file separate Schedule Cs this year (because we have separate business types), with separate deduction lists for travel and business expenses. We both have an office room in our house, with separate desks, and therefore claim dual home offices, which we separate on floor space (it is a 20×20 room, so we will both claim 10×10 for each) plus I claim my regular downtown office for myself.

My last question: We both share a car for business. What about when inputing items like auto insurance? Do we put 50% of insurance cost on hers, and 50% on mine? Or do we just put 100% on one or the other?

Thanks again!
My tax program seems to separate out a portion as business vs. personal, so it just asks me to put in the total insurance amount, repair amount, etc. So when I’m talking about 50/50 separation, I’m just talking about inputing half of insurance under her Sch C and half under mine.

I didnt have a job last year and this year i started doing phone psychic work from home. I’m going to make probably under 10,000 in total for the year (possibly even less; my income from it fluctuates alot monthly, depending on how many people i consult) I know im probably going to owe about 1400-1500 or something like that and I’ll obviously begin sending in estimated payments based on this years income beginning next april. But I’m worried that I misread the rules for estimated taxes and may owe penalties….I also heard that filing schedule c’s tend to get audited alot. I have barely any deductions (mostly a small amount of paypal fees), what’re the odds that I’ll get audited? I’m new to all this so I just want to get a feel for it because I’m a bad worrier.
Thank you for replying and your information but I’m asking if I’m going to be penalized for not paying estimated taxes this year (it’s already too late to do so considering I started working at the beginning of the year) if I made no money last year…
Thank you tax lady… That’s the exact info I wanted. I’ve been reading alot online about schedule cs being audited and I think it made me really paranoid thnking of having to sit down And go over my records with an IRS agent. Even though I’ve kept good records, it’s a scary thought