Small bussiness taxes for 2005?

I have over 40,000.00 in investment in my small bussiness in 2005. I had no income due to research and development costs. I did not file a tax return in 2005....due to no income. Can i ammend my 2005 return and show the loss? Am I able to get a refund for 2005?

I'm soleproprioritor

if youre a sole proprietor then youd file a schedule c on your tax return. did you start your business in 2005? im assuming yes. if you started your business and had "start-up" costs like research and development costs, then these amounts would be capitalized and not expensed. your business was in the beginning stage and the costs you incurred are not written off until you start recognizing income. therefore you would not have a loss for 2005.

for bookkeeping purposes, you should be using a program like Quickbooks to track your income and expenses. these "development costs" would be recorded as assets on your balance sheet. assuming you started earning revenue in 2006, you would be able to write off these expenses in 2006.

It depends on the structure of the company:

C-Corp: You should have filed a return, even if you had no revenue. File it now! You won't get a "refund", but you can use those losses for up to 3 years going forward. If you lost $20k in 2005 and made $20k in 2006, you would not have a tax liability (most likely) because you could write off your 2005 loss wholly or in part in 2006. The balance of the loss, if any, could be used in 2007 and 2008 as well.

S-Corp: File a return! You could have written those losses off your personal taxes and probably have gotten some refund. Your company would not get a refund and could not carry those losses forward if you claim them personally.

LLC: Maybe need to file a return. The LLC passes those losses (or gains) to the members so you would again claim that on your personal taxes for a refund.

In any event, you can, and should, amend your return to accurately reflect your company's business. You don't want to pay more or less than you have to and you definitely don't want the IRS banging on your door for not having filed.