NOL and Sch A

[erchess]

OK taxpayer has an NOL caused by a legit Sch C Loss - I have the records.

Sch A the mortgage alone is more than the Standard Deduction. Since EIC is not in play due to negative MAGI am I free to increase the NOL by not Itemizing?

[erchess]

Bump

I'm sending this up again.

[kpangelinan]

OK taxpayer has an NOL caused by a legit Sch C Loss - I have the records.

Sch A the mortgage alone is more than the Standard Deduction. Since EIC is not in play due to negative MAGI am I free to increase the NOL by not Itemizing?

Don't understand your question/situation. Do you not want to itemize and do you think by not doing so will increase the NOL? I think I need more info. Sorry.

You don't have to itemize if you don't want to.

[erchess]

Thank You For Responding

That's right. I think that taking the smaller of itemized deductions or standard deduction will maximize an NOL in all cases. Am I mistaken? In any event this is a taxpayer who will have negative taxable income and negative MAGI for EIC Purposes just taking the standard deduction.

[kpangelinan]

That's right. I think that taking the smaller of itemized deductions or standard deduction will maximize an NOL in all cases. Am I mistaken? In any event this is a taxpayer who will have negative taxable income and negative MAGI for EIC Purposes just taking the standard deduction.

I think the NOL is calculated on page one of the 1040, so it doesn't matter whether you itemize or not, but it's not going to matter anyways, since his AGI/MAGI is going to be negative. I think, whether you Itemize or not, NOL for next year will be the same.

[Kram BergGold]

non business deductions

Standard or itemized offset non business income to the extent of non business income. The rest are useless except that chairty might be carried over. You should itemize as it can do no harm.

[Davc]

That's right. I think that taking the smaller of itemized deductions or standard deduction will maximize an NOL in all cases. Am I mistaken?

Yes. You are wrong. The basic formula is:

Excess of business deduction over business income - ( excess of non-business income (but not less than zero) over non-business deductions.)

So taking the smaller won't maximize an NOL and may decrease it.