Thanks so much. One more point to clarify... (I'm sorry if this seems like I'm being obtuse, but this form, and depreciation in general, really confuse me. I
sincerely appreciate your help!)
(I also want to clarify that the phone is a personal cell phone that was not given to me by an employer. I am self-employed, and I use this personal phone, which I bought and placed into service in 2013, for business use 60% of the time I use the phone.)
You said "You need to report orginal cost of the cell phone in b;if you elect the whole cost to expense, thenput it in c."
That makes it sound like I should put the TOTAL ORIGINAL COST of the cell phone in column B. But the form seems to indicate that I should only put the
business portion (in my case, 60%) of the original cost in column B. Then I can choose how much
of that portion I elect to expense in column C. For example, if the phone originally cost $400 total, but I only use it 60% for business, then I should put $240 in column B and if I want to expense all of that $240, then I put $240 in column C, too. Does that sound right? Even though there's nowhere to enter the number "60%."
In fact, the heading for column B says: "Cost (business use only)". Doesn't that seem to imply that I
shouldn't put the total original cost there... just the business portion?
I thought the only reason to have a difference between columns B & C would be if you want to expense part of the cost as 179 and the rest in some other fashion. Isn't it incorrect to say that column B should be the total cost and column C is the business portion of that cost you want to expense? Again, I'm not trying to correct you... I'm just trying to make sure I understand.
Thanks again, and I really appreciate your patience.