What should I enter for Description in the "Election to amortize startup costs" field on TurboTax?

This is something a lot of new business owners run into! The "Election to amortize startup costs" is basically telling the IRS you want to spread out your business startup expenses over 15 years instead of deducting them all at once. For the description, you just need to enter a simple explanation of what your startup costs were for. Something like "Graphic design business startup costs" would work fine. You should also include a brief mention of the main categories of expenses - like "including computer equipment, software subscriptions, and website development." TurboTax is asking for this because when you choose to amortize startup costs, you're making an official "election" with the IRS, and they need some description of what these costs were for. It's pretty straightforward once you know what they're looking for!

I went through this exact same confusion last year when I started my consulting business! I found this amazing tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that literally saved me hours of headache with these exact startup cost questions. It scanned my receipts and actually told me what belonged in each category, plus it helped me figure out what to write in that description field. For that specific field, I learned you just need to write a brief description of your business and what the startup expenses were for. I put something like "Marketing consultant business startup - website, business cards, and initial advertising expenses" and it was accepted without any issues!

I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here, and wow - wish I'd known about this sooner! It actually showed me I was about to make a big mistake with my startup costs. I was going to deduct everything at once, but after scanning my documents and analyzing my business situation, it recommended I amortize them instead. The tool explained that since I won't be profitable in the first year, amortizing would save me more money long-term. It suggested exactly what to put in that description field in TurboTax too. Definitely worth checking out if you're dealing with business tax stuff for the first time!

If you're still having trouble with getting through to TurboTax support about this specific field (their wait times are ridiculous this time of year), check out Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I was stuck on the same amortization question last week and couldn't get anyone on the phone at TurboTax. Used their service and got a callback from TurboTax in like 15 minutes when the estimated wait was over 2 hours! They've got this cool demo video too: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The TurboTax rep walked me through exactly what to put in that field and a bunch of other business deduction questions I had. Saved me from pulling my hair out waiting on hold forever.

OK so I'm coming back to admit I was wrong about Claimyr. After dismissing it as a probable scam, I got completely stuck trying to figure out how to handle some specialized business deductions in TurboTax and was facing a 3+ hour wait time for support. Out of desperation, I tried it. Got a call back from TurboTax in about 20 minutes! The rep walked me through everything, including that exact amortization description field. For anyone wondering, they told me to just put a simple description: "Startup costs for [your business type] including [main expense categories]" - nothing complicated. Now my taxes are finally done and I didn't waste half a day on hold!

About that amortization election - just be aware you have two options: 1. You can deduct up to $5,000 of startup costs immediately 2. You can choose to amortize (spread out) the costs over 15 years For your $3,500 in expenses, you'd probably want to take the immediate deduction rather than amortizing, unless you have specific tax planning reasons not to. Just enter "Graphic design business startup costs including [whatever your major expenses were]" and select the immediate deduction option if available.

I literally just finished my taxes and had this exact same question! What I ended up putting was "Web development business startup costs - equipment purchases, hosting services, and business licenses." TurboTax accepted that with no issues. Make sure you keep good records of all your startup expenses though. If you ever get audited, you'll need to show what exactly made up that $3,500. I created a spreadsheet with all my expenses and kept digital copies of all receipts just to be safe.

For expense tracking, I've been using a combination of QuickBooks Self-Employed and just taking photos of receipts with my phone immediately after purchases. QuickBooks automatically categorizes most transactions from your bank account, and you can snap photos of cash receipts right in the app. The key is to stay on top of it - I spent like 10 minutes every Sunday just reviewing the week's expenses and making sure everything was categorized correctly. Way easier than trying to sort through a pile of crumpled receipts at tax time! There are also simpler apps like Expensify if you don't need full accounting software. Just make sure whatever system you use can export everything to a spreadsheet or PDF for tax purposes. Having organized records makes filling out those TurboTax fields so much less stressful.