If you have both farm and nonfarm earnings, you may be able to use both optional methods to determine your net earnings from self-employment.
To figure your net earnings using both optional methods, you must:
Figure your farm and nonfarm net earnings separately under each method. Do not combine farm earnings with nonfarm earnings to figure your net earnings under either method.
Add the net earnings figured under each method to arrive at your total net earnings from self-employment.
You can report less than your total actual farm and nonfarm net earnings but not less than actual nonfarm net earnings. If you use both optional methods, you can report no more than $1,600 as your combined net earnings from self-employment.
Example.
You are a self-employed farmer. You also operate a retail grocery store. Your gross
income, actual net earnings from self-employment, and optional farm and optional
nonfarm net earnings from self-employment are shown below.
| Income and Earnings | Farm | Nonfarm |
| Gross income | $1,200 | $1,500 |
| Actual net earnings | $900 | $500 |
| Optional net earnings (⅔ of gross income) | $800 | $1,000 |
There are four methods or combinations of methods you can use to figure net earnings from self-employment using the farm and nonfarm gross income and actual net earnings.
Method 1. Using the regular method for both farm and nonfarm income.
Method 2. Using the optional method for farm income and the regular method for nonfarm income.
Method 3. Using the regular method for farm income and the optional method for nonfarm income.
Method 4. Using the optional method for both farm and nonfarm income.
Note. Actual net earnings is the same as net earnings figured using the regular method.
| Net Earnings | Method 1 | Method 2 | Method 3 | Method 4 |
| Actual farm | $ 900 | $ 900 | ||
| Optional farm | $ 800 | $ 800 | ||
| Actual nonfarm | $ 500 | $ 500 | ||
| Optional nonfarm | $1,000 | $1,000 | ||
| Amount you can report: | $1,400 | $1,300 | $1,900 | $1,600* |
| * Limited to $1,600 because you used both optional methods. | ||||
Information courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service.
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