Introduction

The purpose of this publication is to provide general information about the federal tax laws that apply to small business owners who are sole proprietors and to statutory employees.

A sole proprietor is someone who owns an unincorporated business, including a limited liability company, by himself or herself. A statutory employee has a checkmark in box 13 of his or her Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. Statutory employees have to use Schedule C or C-EZ to report their wages and expenses.

To use this publication, you will generally need the following forms.

• Form 1040 and its instructions.
• Schedule C or C-EZ and its instructions.

See chapter 12 for information on ordering these forms.

Husband-wife business. If you and your spouse jointly own and operate a business and share in the profits and losses, you are partners in a partnership, whether or not you have a formal partnership agreement. Do not use Schedule C or C-EZ. You must file Form 1065. For more information on partnerships, see Publication 541, Partnerships.

This publication does not cover the topics listed in the following table.

What you need to know. Table A (shown later) provides a list of questions you need to answer to help you meet your federal tax obligations. After each question is the location in this publication where you will find the related discussion.

Table A. What you need to know about federal taxes

IRS mission. Provide America's taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and by applying the tax law with integrity and fairness to all.

Comments and suggestions. We welcome your comments about this publication and your suggestions for future editions.

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www.irs.gov.

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Internal Revenue Service
Technical Publications Branch
W:CAR:MP:FP:P
1111 Constitution Ave. NW
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We respond to many letters by telephone. Therefore, it would be helpful if you would include your daytime phone number, including the area code, in your correspondence.

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