Occasionally an individual taxpayer's Schedule C may have a negative expense. For example, for a particular expense category if the taxpayer receives a refund for a prior year's expenditure that is more than the current year's total expenditures, the total amount for that expense category will be negative.
These are the Schedule C expense categories that the IRS allows to be negative:
| Expense |
Can be negative? |
| Advertising | ✔ |
| Car and truck | ✘ |
| Commissions and fees | ✔ |
| Contract labor | ✔ |
| Depletion | ✔ |
| Depreciation and sec 179 | ✘ |
| Employee benefit programs | ✔ |
| Insurance | ✘ |
| Interest - Mortgage | ✘ |
| Interest - Other | ✔ |
| Legal and professional services | ✘ |
| Office expense | ✘ |
| Pension and profit-sharing plans | ✔ |
| Rent or lease - vehicles, machinery | ✔ |
| Rent or lease - other business property | ✔ |
| Repairs and maintenance | ✘ |
| Supplies | ✔ |
| Taxes and licenses | ✔ |
| Travel and meals - travel | ✘ |
| Travel and meals - deductible meals | ✘ |
| Utilities | ✘ |
| Wages | ✘ |
| Other expenses | ✘ |
Note: This is an article describing the expense elements in the IRS Schedule C (Form 1040) schema that can be negative. It is not intended as tax advice.