Tax Administration: Information on Expenses Claimed by Small	 
Business Sole Proprietorships (23-JAN-04, GAO-04-304).		 
                                                                 
Meeting the requirements of tax rules can be especially 	 
burdensome to small business sole proprietorships that		 
independently own their businesses. Internal Revenue Service	 
(IRS) data show that, compared to other taxpayer groups, sole	 
proprietorships have more problems complying with their tax	 
obligations. Simplifying how sole proprietorships account for and
report expenses may ease their burden and increase compliance.	 
Because of the requesters' interest in alleviating any		 
unnecessary burden that federal tax requirements impose on small 
businesses, we were asked to provide information on the expenses 
that sole proprietorships report on IRS's Form 1040 Schedule	 
C--Profit or Loss from Business and on Form 1040 Schedule	 
F--Profit or Loss from Farming. By having information on the	 
expenses reported by sole proprietorships, policymakers may be in
a better position to develop alternatives for simplifying how	 
these taxpayers account for and report their expenses.		 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-04-304 					        
    ACCNO:   A09162						        
  TITLE:     Tax Administration: Information on Expenses Claimed by   
Small Business Sole Proprietorships				 
     DATE:   01/23/2004 
  SUBJECT:   Data collection					 
	     Federal taxes					 
	     Small business					 
	     Tax returns					 
	     Taxpayers						 
	     Noncompliance					 
	     Expenses						 

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GAO-04-304

United States General Accounting Office

                     GAO Report to Congressional Requesters

January 2004

TAX ADMINISTRATION

     Information on Expenses Claimed by Small Business Sole Proprietorships

                                       a

GAO-04-304

Highlights of GAO-04-304, a report to congressional requesters

Meeting the requirements of tax rules can be especially burdensome to
small business sole proprietorships that independently own their
businesses. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data show that, compared to
other taxpayer groups, sole proprietorships have more problems complying
with their tax obligations. Simplifying how sole proprietorships account
for and report expenses may ease their burden and increase compliance.

Because of the requesters' interest in alleviating any unnecessary burden
that federal tax requirements impose on small businesses, we were asked to
provide information on the expenses that sole proprietorships report on
IRS's Form 1040 Schedule C-Profit or Loss from Business and on Form 1040
Schedule F-Profit or Loss from Farming. By having information on the
expenses reported by sole proprietorships, policymakers may be in a better
position to develop alternatives for simplifying how these taxpayers
account for and report their expenses.

January 2004

TAX ADMINISTRATION

Information on Expenses Claimed by Small Business Sole Proprietorships

In tax years 2000 and 2001, the 10 most commonly claimed categories of
expenses of sole proprietors filing Schedule C included Other expenses,
Car/truck, Supplies, Utilities, Office, and Professional/legal. The
percentage of such taxpayers reporting expenses in these categories varied
from 73 percent for Other expenses to 48 percent for Professional/legal.
Because IRS does not separately compile information on each of the
categories of expenses on Schedule F, we could not determine the most
commonly claimed expenses for taxpayers who filed that schedule. However,
the IRS data showed that more than 50 percent of the taxpayers who filed
Schedule F claimed expenses for Depreciation, Repairs, Gasoline/oil, and
Supplies.

The expenses that small businesses reported on schedules C and F varied
widely across and within expense categories. There was wide variation in
both median dollar amounts and ranges. Expenses also varied greatly within
the categories of expenses. For example, the expenses for Wages taxpayers
reported on Schedule C in tax year 2001 ranged from about $1,000 at the
10th percentile to $99,000 at the 90th percentile.

In tax year 2001, there was wide variability in the expenses of sole
proprietorships by business characteristics such as gross receipts,
industry category, businesses with inventories, and businesses with home
offices. Not surprisingly, businesses with higher gross receipts had
higher expenses compared to businesses with smaller gross receipts.
Further, the distribution of expenses across expense categories generally
remained similar for all businesses. However, expenses across industry
categories showed wide variability in the amounts and ranges of expenses.
Sole proprietors in six industries whose businesses maintained inventories
had significantly higher median expenses than those without inventory and
sole proprietors with home office expenses generally had lower median
expenses than those without home offices.

Ranges of Expenses for the 10 Most Commonly Claimed Categories of Expenses
on

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-304.

To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
the link above. For more information, contact Michael Brostek at (202)
512-9110 or [email protected].

Schedule C

                                                                        Other
                                                                    Car/truck
                                                                     Supplies
                                                                    Utilities
                                                                       Office
                                                  Legal/professional services
                                                                 Depreciation
                                                                        Taxes
                                                                    Insurance
                                                          Meals/entertainment

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Dollars in thousands

Bars show values between the 10th and 90th percentiles and the lines
extend the ranges to the 1st and 99th percentiles.

Contents

  Letter

Results in Brief
Background
The Most Commonly Claimed Categories of Expenses of Sole

Proprietorships Wide Variation in Amounts of Expenses Within and Across
Expense

Categories Wide Variation in Expenses by Business Characteristics Agency
Comments

1 2 4

5

7 11 25

Appendixes

Appendix I:

Appendix II:

                                       Appendix III: Appendix IV: Appendix V:

Appendix VI: Appendix VII: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Information on the Percent of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expenses on Schedule C
and Schedule F in Tax Years 2000 and 2001

Information on the Amounts and Ranges of Expenses Reported on Schedule C
and Schedule F

Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected Business
Characteristics

Information on Cost of Goods Sold for Businesses With Inventories and
Depreciation Expenses by Industry Categories

Comments from the Internal Revenue Service

GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contacts Acknowledgments 26

29 33 40

72

78

79 79 79

Glossary

    Tables      Table 1: Percentage of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expense      
                        Categories on Schedule C, Tax Years 2000 and 2001  30 
                Table 2: Percentage of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expense      
                        Categories on Schedule F, Tax Years 2000 and 2001  31 
              Table 3: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by 
                           Amount and Range, Tax Year 2000                 34 

Contents

Table 4: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by
Amount and Range, Tax Year 2001 36
Table 5: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule F
Compiled by SOI by Amount and Range, Tax Year 2000 38
Table 6: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule F
Compiled by SOI by Amount and Range, Tax Year 2001 39

Table 7:	Percentage of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expense
Categories on Schedule C by Size Based on Business Gross
Receipts, Tax Year 2000 41

Table 8:	Percentage of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expense
Categories on Schedule C by Size Based on Business Gross
Receipts, Tax Year 2001 43

Table 9:	Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Size
Based on Business Gross Receipts, Tax Years 2000 and
2001 45

Table 10: Range Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C
by Size Based on Businesses Gross Receipts, Tax Year
2000 47

Table 11: Range Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C
by Size Based on Businesses Gross Receipts, Tax Year
2000 49

Table 12: Range Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C
by Size Based on Businesses Gross Receipts, Tax Year
2000 51

Table 13: Range Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C
by Size Based on Businesses Gross Receipts, Tax Year
2001 53

Table 14: Range Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C
by Size Based on Businesses Gross Receipts, Tax Year
2001 55

Table 15: Range Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C
by Size Based on Businesses Gross Receipts, Tax Year
2001 57

Table 16: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Total
Business Gross Receipts, Tax Years 2000 and 2001 59

Table 17: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C
Expenses by Business Gross Receipts, Tax Years 2000 and
2001 60

Table 18: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C
Expenses, Tax Years 2000 and 2001 61
Table 19: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C
Expenses, Tax Years 2000 and 2001 62

Contents

Table 20: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
Businesses With Inventory, Tax Years 2000 and 2001 63

Table 21: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
Businesses With and Without Inventory, Tax Year 2000 64

Table 22: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
Businesses With and Without Inventory, Tax Year 2001 65

Table 23: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Businesses
With and Without Home Office Expense, Tax Year 2000 66

Table 24: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Businesses
With and Without Home Office Expense, Tax Year 2001 68

Table 25: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
Businesses With Home Office Expense, Tax Year 2000 70

Table 26: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
Businesses With Home Office Expense, Tax Year 2001 71

Table 27: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
Cost of Goods Sold for Businesses With and Without Inventory, Tax Year
2000 73

Table 28: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
Cost of Goods Sold for Businesses With and Without Inventory, Tax Year
2001 74

Table 29: Depreciation Expense Reported on Schedule C by Industry, Tax
Year 2000 75

            Table 30: Depreciation Expense Reported on Schedule C by
                            Industry, Tax Year 2001
                                       77
                     Ten Most Commonly Reported Expenses   
Figures Figure 1:  on Schedule C, Tax Years 2000 and    
                                    2001                 6 
           Figure 2:  Reported Expenses Compiled by SOI    
                              from Schedule F,             
                           Tax Years 2000 and 2001       7 
           Figure 3:   Ranges of Expenses Reported on      
                            Schedule C, Tax Year           
                                    2001                 9 
           Figure 4:   Ranges of Expenses Reported on        SOI, Tax Year 10 
                           Schedule F Compiled by                2001      

Contents

Figure 5:	Percentage Distribution of Taxpayers According to Their
Aggregate Expenses Reported on Schedule C, Tax Year
2001 11

Figure 6:	Comparison of Ranges of the 10 Most Commonly Claimed
Expenses on Schedule C Based On Gross Receipts, Tax
Year 2001 13

Figure 7:	Aggregate Expenses Greater Than 5 Billion Claimed on
Schedule C and Schedule F by Industry Categories, Tax
Years 2000 and 2001 15

Figure 8: Schedule C Industry Categories With Median Expenses
$5,000 or More, Tax Years 2000 and 2001 16
Figure 9: Businesses Maintaining Inventory by Industry Category,
Tax Years 2000 and 2001 (Schedule C) 18
Figure 10: Median Expenses of Businesses Without and With
Inventory by Industry, Tax Year 2001 (Schedule C) 20
Figure 11: Businesses Claiming Home Office Expenses by Industry,
Tax Years 2000 and 2001 (Schedule C) 22
Figure 12: Median Home Office Expenses Reported on Schedule C
by Industry Category, Tax Year 2001 23

Figure 13: Median Business Expenses Claimed by Businesses With
and Without Home Office Expense, Tax Year 2001
(Schedule C) 24

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A

United States General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548

January 23, 2004

The Honorable Olympia J. Snowe
Chair
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
United States Senate

The Honorable Christopher S. Bond
United States Senate

Complying with tax rules can be especially burdensome to small business
sole proprietorships who independently own their unincorporated
businesses. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data show that sole
proprietorships have more problems meeting their tax obligations than
other taxpayer groups. For example, IRS examiners proposed adjustments
to sole proprietors' tax returns at three times the rate as it did for
nonbusiness individual tax returns in fiscal year 2001. Simplifying how
sole
proprietorships account for and report their business expenses may ease
their burden and increase compliance.

Sole proprietorships report their business-related expenses on IRS's Form
1040 Schedule C-Profit or Loss from Business, and farm-related expenses
on IRS's Form 1040 Schedule F-Profit or Loss from Farming.1 Both forms
are preprinted with a list of expense categories for taxpayers to itemize
their expenses, including "Other expenses" for expenses not included in
another category.

Because of your interest in alleviating any unnecessary burden that
federal
tax requirements impose on small businesses, you asked us for information
on the expenses that small businesses operating as sole proprietorships
report on their income tax returns. As agreed with your office, we are
providing you with information on the expenses claimed by taxpayers on
Schedule C and Schedule F. Specifically, we are providing information on

o  the most commonly reported categories of expenses;

o  the amount of variation within and across expense categories; and

1Elsewhere in this report, we refer to these forms simply as Schedule C
and Schedule F.

o 	the expenses based on selected business characteristics such as size,
industry category, businesses with inventories, and businesses with home
offices.

You also asked us for information on the cost of goods sold for businesses
with inventories and information on depreciation expenses by industry
categories. Appendix V provides that information.

To address our objectives, we reviewed the Schedule C and Schedule F tax
forms, their related instructions, and other IRS publications pertaining
to small businesses. We obtained IRS's Statistics of Income (SOI)
individual income tax databases for tax years 2000 and 2001, the most
recent 2 years that data were available. The SOI databases included
information on taxpayers who reported business expenses on Schedule C and
Schedule F. We used these databases to develop the statistical information
in this report. Given that the SOI data are a sample, the population
estimates made from the data are subject to sampling errors. The numbers
we report are estimated to the population with a 95 percent confidence
interval. The sample error surrounding each estimate is disclosed for each
data table contained in the appendixes. Also, we omitted population
estimates from some tables when there were too few observations or too
much sample variation to generate reliable estimates. This report only
addresses one group of small business taxpayers, that is, sole
proprietorships who reported business expenses on Schedule C or Schedule
F.

We determined that the SOI databases were reliable for our purposes,
although they have limitations for our purposes. Specifically, because IRS
does not compile separate information on each of the expense categories
listed on Schedule F, we could not provide complete information on the
expenses of small businesses engaged in farming. Furthermore, the SOI data
contain information as reported by taxpayers on their tax returns prior to
verification by IRS through audits and other checks.

We conducted our work between April 2003 and October 2003 in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards. Appendix I
describes our objectives, scope, and methodology in greater detail.

Results in Brief	In tax years 2000 and 2001, the most commonly claimed
categories of expenses for sole proprietors filing Schedule Cs included
Other expenses, Car/truck, Supplies, Utilities, Office, and
Professional/legal. The

percentage of taxpayers filing Schedule Cs that reported expenses in these
categories varied from 73 percent for the Other expense category to 48
percent for the Professional/legal expense category. Because the SOI
database did not separately compile information for each expense category
on Schedule F, we were unable to determine the most commonly reported
categories of expenses of taxpayers filing Schedule F. However, over 50
percent of the taxpayers filing Schedule F claimed expenses for
Depreciation, Repairs, Gasoline/oil, and Supplies.

The expenses that small businesses reported on Schedule C and Schedule F
varied widely across and within expense categories. There was wide
variation in both median dollar amounts and ranges. On Schedule C in tax
year 2001, the 99th percentile2 ranged from about $10,000 for
Meals/entertainment expenses to nearly $350,000 for Wages. Expenses also
varied greatly within the categories of expenses. For example, the
expenses for Wages that taxpayers reported on Schedule C in tax year 2001
ranged from about $1,000 at the 10th percentile to about $99,000 at the
90th percentile.

In tax year 2001, there was wide variability in the expenses of sole
proprietorships based on business characteristics such as size (measured
in gross receipts), industry category, businesses with inventories, and
businesses with home offices.3 Not surprisingly, for the 10 most commonly
claimed expenses on Schedule C, businesses with higher gross receipts had
higher expenses in contrast to businesses with smaller gross receipts that
had lower expenses. Further, the distribution of expenses across expense
categories generally remained similar for all business sizes. However, in
viewing the expenses across industry categories, the data showed wide
variability in the amounts and ranges of expenses. For example, the total
expenses that farming sole proprietorships claimed were about 75 percent
larger than the total expenses that taxpayers claimed for any other
industry. In six industries, sole proprietors whose businesses maintained
inventories had significantly higher median expenses than those that did
not, and sole proprietors with home office expenses generally had lower
median expenses than those without home offices.

2We are not providing information on ranges of expense categories for the
absolute minimum and maximum amounts to remove extreme outliers and to
ensure that we do not disclose taxpayer information.

3Businesses with home office expenses only relate to sole proprietors
filing Schedule Cs.

Background	IRS defines small businesses to include all partnerships,
corporations, and S corporations with assets under $10 million, and all
self-employed individuals also known as sole proprietorships.4 Each form
of business has distinctive legal characteristics that bring about
different tax consequences. For example, corporations are taxed as
separate entities distinct from their owners, with taxable dividends
included in the shareholders' income; income earned by S corporations and
partnerships is passed through to their owners and taxed at the owners'
rates; and sole proprietorships are taxed as individuals.5

According to IRS's data, a majority of small businesses are sole
proprietorships. In calendar year 2003 about 20.4 million sole proprietors
were expected to file tax returns. In addition, about 7 million of the 8.2
million partnerships, corporations, and S corporations were expected to
file tax returns had assets of less than $10 million.

Sole proprietors report their business income to IRS on Form 1040, the
individual income tax return. They are also required to attach the
appropriate schedules for reporting income and expenses related to their
business operations such as Schedule C and Schedule F.6 Schedule C is
preprinted with 24 expense categories including a separate line for
taxpayers to record expenses for business use of their homes. Similarly,
Schedule F has 25 expense categories. One of the expense categories on
both schedules is for taxpayers to report any other expenses that do not
generally fit within one of the itemized categories. In tax year 2001,
about 90 percent of the sole proprietors submitted Schedule Cs and about
10 percent submitted Schedule Fs.

4Sole proprietors may employ individuals other than themselves to work in
their business.

5A limited liability company (LLC) may be classified for federal income
tax purposes as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or a corporation. If
the LLC has only one owner, it will automatically be considered to be a
sole proprietorship, unless an election is made to be treated as a
corporation.

6Sole proprietors with a single business that had $2,500 or less in
expenses and used the cash method for accounting purposes and had no
inventory at any time during the year can use Schedule C-EZ provided they
had no operating loss and met certain other criteria.

The Most Commonly Claimed Categories of Expenses of Sole Proprietorships

Figure 1 shows the 10 most commonly claimed categories of expenses that
sole proprietorships reported on Schedule C. As illustrated, the most
commonly claimed categories of expenses on Schedule Cs included Other
expenses, Car/truck, Supplies, Utilities, Office, and Professional/legal.
The percentage of taxpayers claiming these particular categories of
expenses ranged from 73 percent for Other expenses to 48 percent for
Professional/legal. While the information contained in IRS's SOI database
precluded us from determining the most common expenses that taxpayers
reported on Schedule Fs, figure 2 shows the percentage of taxpayers
claiming Schedule F expenses that SOI does individually track. The
available data showed that more than half of the sole proprietors claimed
expenses in the categories for Depreciation, Repairs, Gasoline/oil, and
Supplies. We could not determine the most commonly reported expenses of
taxpayers who filed Schedule F because IRS does not compile detailed
information on 13 of the 25 expense categories on Schedule F.7 Instead,
the data on these 13 expense categories are aggregated with and reported
in the Other expense category. Consequently, the value of the Other
expense category is overstated. The tables in appendix II provide
additional information on the percentage of taxpayers who claimed certain
expense categories on Schedule Cs and Schedule Fs in tax years 2000 and
2001.

7SOI officials stated that they do not compile information on each
category of expenses on Schedule Fs because currently there is no
requirement to do so.

Figure 1: Ten Most Commonly Reported Expenses on Schedule C, Tax Years
2000 and 2001

Percentage of taxpayers

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Other Car/truck Supplies Utilities Office Legal/ Depreciation Taxes
Insurance Meals/ professional entertainment servicesExpense categories

2000 2001 Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Insurance expense excludes accident and health insurance for
employees.

Figure 2: Reported Expenses Compiled by SOI from Schedule F, Tax Years 2000 and
                                      2001

Percentage of taxpayers

Depreciation Repairs Gasoline/oil Supplies Seeds/plants Custom hire
Interest on other business debt

                              Interest on mortgage

Labor hired

                           Employee benefit programs

Pension/profit sharing plans

                               Expense categories

                                   2000 2001

                       Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Excludes the Other expenses category because SOI aggregates the 13
categories of expenses for which data are not individually compiled into
the Other expenses category.

The expenses reported by sole proprietorships on Schedule C and Schedule F
varied widely across and within expense categories. The median dollar
amounts for expenses varied extensively across expense categories as did
the ranges of expenses reported on both schedules. For example, the 99th
percentile of expenses on Schedule C ranged from about $10,000 for
Meals/entertainment to about $350,000 for Wages. Within an expense
category, the data also showed wide variation.

Figures 3 and 4 show the broad ranges of expenses that sole
proprietorships reported on Schedule Cs and Schedule Fs in tax year 2001.
The solid bars represent the ranges of expenses at the 10th and the 90th

Wide Variation in Amounts of Expenses Within and Across Expense Categories

percentiles and define the ranges where 80 percent of the expenses fell.
For example, 80 percent of claims on Schedule C for Wage expenses fell
between $895 at the 10th percentile and $99,163 at the 90th percentile.
The lines that extend out from the ends of the bar show the range of the
expenses to the 1st and 99th percentiles. For example, Wage expenses on
Schedule C ranged from approximately $100 at the 1st percentile to about
$350,000 at the 99th percentile. Like schedule C, the ranges of expenses
on Schedule F varied widely.

Figure 3: Ranges of Expenses Reported on Schedule C, Tax Year 2001

Expense catagories Advertising

Bad debts

Car/truck

Commissions

Depletion

Depreciation

Employee benefits

Insurance

Interest on mortgage

Interest on other business debt

Legal/professional services

Office

Pension/profit sharing programs

Rent on machinery/equipment

Rent on other business property

Repairs

Supplies

Taxes

Travel

Meals/entertainment

Utilities

Wages

Other

Home office 350 Dollars in thousands

Bars show values between the 10th and 90th percentiles and the lines
extend the ranges to the 1st and 99th percentiles

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Insurance expense excludes accident and health insurance for
employees.

Figure 4: Ranges of Expenses Reported on Schedule F Compiled by SOI, Tax
Year 2001 Expense catagories Custom hire

Depreciation Employee benefit programs

Gasoline/oil

Interest on mortgage Interest on other business debt

Labor hired Pension/profit sharing plans Repairs

Seeds/plants

Supplies Other

                       Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

0

Dollars in thousands

Bars show values between the 10th and 90th percentiles and the lines
extend the ranges to the 1st and 99th percentiles

Note: The Other expense category includes information on the Other expense
category plus the 13 categories of expenses for which IRS does not compile
separate data.

Figure 5 shows the percentage distribution of taxpayers according to the
aggregate amount of expenses they reported on Schedule C in tax year 2001.
As illustrated, the median expenses claimed were $8,968. This means that
half of the taxpayers claimed less than $8,968 in total expenses while
half claimed more.

Figure 5: Percentage Distribution of Taxpayers According to Their
Aggregate Expenses Reported on Schedule C, Tax Year 2001

                               Percentage 100 80

                                  median mean

                                       60

                                       40

         20 0 0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 300,000 350,000

                       Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Wide Variation in There was a high degree of variability in the amounts
and ranges of

expenses based on business size, industry category, businesses
withExpenses by Business inventories, and businesses with home offices.8
Characteristics

As Gross Receipts Increased, the Distribution of Expenses Remained Similar

To provide some perspective on how business expenses may differ between
larger and smaller businesses, we used gross receipts as a measure of
business size. Not surprisingly, sole proprietors with larger gross
receipts generally claimed more expenses in the 10 most commonly claimed
Schedule C categories than those with smaller gross receipts. While the
amounts and ranges of expenses were larger as gross receipts increased,
the distribution of expenses across expense categories generally remained
similar. We analyzed information for three different size categories-(1)
under $25,000 in gross receipts, which represented 61

8Comparable data on business characteristics were not available for sole
proprietorships that filed Schedule F.

percent of the sole proprietors who filed Schedule Cs, (2) between $25,000
and $100,000 in gross receipts, which represented 25 percent of the sole
proprietors who filed Schedule Cs, and (3) and over $100,000 in gross
receipts, which represented 14 percent of the sole proprietors who filed
Schedule Cs. Figure 6 compares the ranges of expenses across these three
business sizes. Comparable information on gross receipts was not available
for us to analyze farming expenses in this manner.

Figure 6: Comparison of Ranges of the 10 Most Commonly Claimed Expenses on
Schedule C Based On Gross Receipts, Tax Year 2001

Dollars in thousands

Bars show values between the 10th and 90th percentiles and the lines
extend the ranges to the 1st and 99th percentiles

Note: Table shows 10 most common expenses claimed by sole proprietors on
Schedule C. Insurance expense excludes accident and health insurance for
employees.

Expenses Vary by Industry Category

Figure 7 shows the total dollar amounts of expenses that sole proprietors
reported on Schedule Cs and Schedule Fs by industry category in tax years
2000 and 2001. In filling out their Schedule Cs, taxpayers are to select
an industry category that best describes their business from the list of
codes included in the schedule's instructions. (See app. I for more
information.) As illustrated by the figure, the total expenses that
taxpayers claimed related to the farming industry on Schedule F were about
75 percent larger than the expenses for any other single industry category
for Schedule C businesses. Figure 8 shows that variation exists in median
expenses across industry categories.

Figure 7: Aggregate Expenses Greater Than 5 Billion Claimed on Schedule C
and Schedule F by Industry Categories, Tax Years 2000 and 2001

Industry categories Farming (Schedule F)

Construction

Professional/technical

Health care/social assistance

Retail trade

Transportation/warehousing

Other services

Finance/insurance

Real estate/leasing

Accommodation/food services

Administrative/waste management

Arts/recreation

Manufacturing

Agriculture/forestry

Wholesale trade 0 20 40 60 80 100 Dollars in billions

                                      2001

                                      2000

Source: GAO analysis of IRS's data.

Note: Expenses for the farming industry category were reported on the
Schedule F. Expenses for all other industry categories were reported on
the Schedule C.

Figure 8: Schedule C Industry Categories With Median Expenses $5,000 or
More, Tax Years 2000 and 2001

Industry categories

Accommodation/food services

Transportation/warehousing

Finance/insurance

Real estate/leasing

Construction

Agriculture/forestry

Manufacturing

Utilities

Wholesale trade

Health care/social assistance

Other services

Professional/technical

Mining

Retail trade

Arts/recreation

Administrative/waste management 0 5 101520 Dollars in thousands

2001 2000 Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

In Six Industries, Sole All industries had some small businesses that
maintained inventories. In Proprietorships With only four industries,
however-Retail trade, Accommodation/food Inventory Had Significantly
services, Wholesale trade, and Manufacturing-did more than 15 percent of
Higher Median Expenses businesses have inventories in tax years 2000 and
2001. (See fig. 9.)

Than Those Without Inventory

Figure 9: Businesses Maintaining Inventory by Industry Category, Tax Years
2000 and 2001 (Schedule C)

Industry categories

Religious/civic

Mining

Transportation/warehousing Finance/insurance Health care/social assistance
Real estate/leasing Education services Administrative/waste management

                                                       Professional/technical
                                                                 Construction
                                                                 Unclassified
                                                         Agriculture/forestry

                                                              Arts/recreation
                                                                  Information
                                                                    Utilities
                                                               Other services

Manufacturing Wholesale trade

Accommodation/food services

Retail trade

0 5 10152025 30354045 50 Percentage

2000 2001 Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Figure 10 shows a comparison of median expenses of businesses by industry
with and without inventory. The median expenses for businesses with
inventory were significantly higher than those of businesses without an
inventory for six industries-Accommodation/food services, Health
care/social assistance, Mining, Transportation/warehousing, Construction,
and Other services.

Figure 10: Median Expenses of Businesses Without and With Inventory by
Industry, Tax Year 2001 (Schedule C)

Industry categories

Unclassified

Education services

Arts/recreation

Professional/technical Finance/insurance

Retail trade

Administrative/waste management Manufacturing

Agriculture/forestry

Information

Wholesale trade

Real estate/leasing

Other services

Construction

Transportation/warehousing

Accommodation/food services

Health care/social assistance

Mining 250 Dollars in thousands

Without With

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Two industries-Religious/civic and Utilities-are not included
because reliable population estimates could not be developed.

Sole Proprietorships Claiming Home Office Expense Generally Had Lower
Median Expenses Than Those Without Home Offices

While all industries had some businesses with home offices, they were more
prevalent in some industries. Health care/social assistance and
Professional/technical had the highest percentage of Home office expenses
claimed in tax years 2000 and 2001 (see fig. 11). Figure 12 shows the
variation in the median amounts of Home office expense by industry in tax
year 2001. Those businesses without home offices generally reported higher
median expenses than those with home offices, although Office and Other
expenses were higher for those businesses with a home office (see fig.
13).

Figure 11: Businesses Claiming Home Office Expenses by Industry, Tax Years
2000 and 2001 (Schedule C)

Industry categories

Mining

Unclassified

Religious/civic

Transportation/warehousing

Accommodation/food services Agriculture/forestry

                                  Other services Retail trade Arts/recreation

Finance/insurance

Construction

Real estate/leasing

Administrative/waste management

Education services

Manufacturing

Wholesale trade

Information

Professional/technical

Health care/social assistance 0 5 10 15202530 Percentage

2000 2001 Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: The Utilities industry was excluded from the analysis because it had
less than 100 sample observations.

Figure 12: Median Home Office Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Industry
Category, Tax Year 2001

Industry categories Mining

Retail trade

Unclassified

Agriculture/forestry

Administrative/waste management

Transportation/warehousing

Real estate/leasing

Construction

Education services

Manufacturing

Other services

Religious/civic

Information

Professional/technical

Accommodation/food services

Finance/insurance

Arts/recreation

Wholesale trade

Health care/social assistance 0 12 3

                              Dollars in thousands

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: The Utilities industry was excluded from the analysis because it had
less than 100 sample observations.

Figure 13: Median Business Expenses Claimed by Businesses With and Without
Home Office Expense, Tax Year 2001 (Schedule C)

Expense categories

Advertising

Bad debts

Car/truck

Commissions Depletion

Depreciation

Employee benefit programs

Insurance Interest on mortgage

Interest on other business debt

Legal/professional services

Office

Pension/profit sharing plans

Rent on machinery/equipment

Rent on other business property

Repairs

Supplies

Taxes

Travel

Meals/entertainment

Utilities

Wages

Other

                              Dollars in thousands

With Without Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Appendix IV provides additional information on expenses of sole
proprietors by the business characteristics described above.

Agency Comments	IRS's Director, Research, Analysis, and Statistics
provided us written comments on a draft of this report in a January 13,
2004, letter, which is reprinted in appendix VI. The Director agreed that
the tabulations in the report accurately reflect the SOI sample data for
small business expenses claimed by taxpayers on Schedule Cs and Schedule
Fs.

As agreed with your office, unless you announce the contents of this
report earlier, we plan no further distribution of this report until 30
days from the date of this letter. At that time, we will send copies of
this report to the Ranking Minority Member of your Committee, the Chairman
and Ranking Minority Member of the House Committee on Small Business, the
Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Committee on Finance,
and the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the House Committee on
Ways and Means. We will also send copies to the Secretary of the Treasury,
the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and the Director, Office of
Management and Budget. Copies will be made available to others upon
request. The report is also available on GAO's home page at
http://www.gao.gov.

If you have any questions concerning this report, please contact me or
Charlie Daniel at (202) 512-9110. Key contributors to this work are listed
in appendix VI.

Michael Brostek Director, Tax Issues

Appendix I

                       Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Our objective was to provide descriptive information on (1) the most
commonly reported categories of expenses of small business taxpayers
operating as sole proprietorships, (2) the amount of variation within and
across expense categories, and (3) the expenses based on selected business
characteristics such as size, industry, businesses with inventories, and
businesses with home offices.

To address our objective, we obtained information from IRS's nonpublic use
SOI databases of individual income tax returns that reported expenses for
small business sole proprietorship on Schedules C and Schedule F for tax
years 2000 and 2001. These years were the most recent that data were
available. SOI's nonpublic use databases differs from its public use
databases in that they contain more detailed data, some of which could be
associated to specific taxpayers. According to IRS, the SOI databases were
compiled from transaction file records created when IRS processed
individual income tax returns. The statistics compiled by SOI are
estimates from a stratified probability sample of unaudited individual
income tax returns filed during calendar years 2001 (for tax year 2000)
and 2002 (for tax year 2001). IRS excluded tentative and amended tax
returns from the database. Tentative returns were excluded because the
revised returns may have been sampled later and amended returns were
excluded because the original returns had already been subjected to
sampling. The sample was stratified on the basis of subpopulation groups
called strata, and a sample was randomly selected independently from each
stratum. For example, one stratum is for the presence of both Schedule F
and Schedule

C.

To assess the reliability of IRS's SOI individual income tax return
databases, we followed our guidance for assessing the reliability of
computerized databases.1 In particular, we (1) performed electronic
testing for obvious errors in the accuracy and completeness of the data,
(2) reviewed the SOI dataset documentation, and (3) interviewed IRS
officials knowledgeable about the data to gain an understanding of the
internal procedures that were in place to ensure data quality. According
to SOI, the data derived from the tax returns were subjected to a number
of validation and consistency checks, including systematic verifications
of some work of each tax examiner involved in the SOI processes to compile
the databases. Most of the data validation checks were computerized tests
of records.

1U.S. General Accounting Office, Assessing the Reliability of
Computer-Processed Data (External version1), GAO-03-273G (Washington,
D.C.: October 2002).

Appendix I
Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

While we found the data reliable for the purpose of our engagement, we
noted limitations of the database. In particular, SOI data contain
information as reported by taxpayers on their income tax returns that may
not have been subjected to much of IRS's internal accuracy checks such as
the document matching of information returns. In addition, IRS does not
separately transcribe all of the detailed expense information from
Schedule F like it does for the Schedule C. Consequently, we could not
provide the same level of detailed information on expenses relating to
Schedule F as we could for Schedule C tax returns.

To determine the most commonly reported expenses of small business sole
proprietorships, we estimated the percent of taxpayers who reported a
nonzero value in each expense category listed on the Schedule Cs and
Schedule Fs. We excluded taxpayers who filed Schedule C-E, because that
form does not have itemized expenses. We also excluded taxpayers who filed
Schedule Cs or Schedule Fs but did not list any itemized expenses on them.
Because IRS does not compile information on all of the expense categories
on Schedule F, we were unable to precisely determine what were the most
commonly reported categories of expenses. Of the 25 categories of expenses
on Schedule F, IRS only compiles detailed information on 12 categories.
The SOI databases combine information on the remaining 13 expenses and
reports them as a single amount under the Other expenses category on
Schedule F. As shown in table 2 in appendix II, the Other expenses
category represented about 51 percent of the expenses reported by
taxpayers on Schedule F in tax year 2001. However, we used IRS's available
data to provide some perspective on the percent of taxpayers who filed
Schedule Fs that reported nonzero values in the expense categories where
data were available. This information was not sufficient for us to rank
the categories and present reliable information on the most commonly
claimed expenses.

To provide information on the amount of variation within and across
expense categories, we summarized information on the dollar amounts of
expenses from IRS's SOI individual databases that reported expenses of
small business sole proprietorships and estimated the population mean and
median values. We also estimated population percentile values of the
business expense categories on Schedule Cs and Schedule Fs. We estimated
values for the 1st, 10th, 50th, 90th, and 99th percentiles. Our
information on Schedule F taxpayers was limited to those expense
categories for which IRS had data. To mitigate the possibility of
presenting unusual outliers and to ensure that we do not disclose taxpayer

Appendix I
Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

information, we do not provide the minimum and maximum values. Rather we
provide estimates of the 1st and 99th percentiles.

To provide information on the selected business characteristics that you
requested, we estimated population expense values based on business size,
industry category, businesses maintaining inventory, and businesses with
home offices. We also included information on businesses operating farms
and agricultural enterprises. To perform our analysis of business expenses
based on the size of businesses, we used different levels of gross
receipts as the measure for size. To determine industry categories, we
collected information from IRS's SOI databases by the principal business
codes as reported by taxpayers. Taxpayers were to determine their
principal business codes from the North American Industry Classification
System information in the instructions for the tax forms.

To provide information on the cost of goods sold for businesses with
inventories and information on depreciation expenses by industry
categories, we estimated population values for different categories of
industries.

Because the SOI data are a sample, the population estimates made from that
data are subject to some imprecision owing to sampling variability. We
express our confidence in the precision of the sample's results as a 95
percent confidence interval of plus or minus some percentage for sampling
errors. The sampling errors associated with our population estimates are
listed with each table in the appendixes. Further, for some entries in
some tables there were too few observations or too much sample variation
to generate reliable population estimates. In these cases the estimates
are omitted.

We did our work at IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C. between April 2003
and October 2003 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
standards.

Appendix II

Information on the Percent of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expenses on Schedule C
and Schedule F in Tax Years 2000 and 2001

This appendix provides complete information on the percentage of taxpayers
who claimed expenses in the categories of expenses listed on Schedule C
and on Schedule F, to the extent that data on farming expenses were
available. It also provides information that shows how each individual
expense category compares as a percentage of the total expenses

  Appendix II Information on the Percent of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expenses on
              Schedule C and Schedule F in Tax Years 2000 and 2001

 Table 1: Percentage of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expense Categories on Schedule C,
               Tax Years 2000 and 2001 2000 2001 Expense category

Percentage of taxpayers who claimed expense Expense as percentage of total
expenses Percentage of taxpayers who claimed expense Expense as percentage
                                                            of total expenses

               Advertising                35.3       2.4      35.1   
                Bad debts                     2.6   0.2a      2.8        0.3b 
                Car/truck                 71.5      10.9      71.0   
               Commissions                    7.9    2.8      7.8    
                Depletion                     0.6   0.2a      0.6        0.2a 
               Depreciation               44.5       7.7      43.1   
        Employee benefit programs             2.3    0.4      2.2    
                Insurance                 37.9       3.3      37.1   
           Interest on mortgage               5.7    1.3      5.6    
     Interest on other business debt      13.6       1.7      13.2   
       Legal/professional services        48.0       1.8      47.9   
                  Office                  49.7       2.5      49.5   
       Pension/profit sharing plans           1.1   0.2a      1.1        0.2a 
       Rent on machinery/equipment        15.2       2.1      15.1   
     Rent on other business property      20.4       5.8      19.7   
                 Repairs                  31.2       2.9      30.5   

                  Supplies                    56.1   5.2      56.4        5.3 
                   Taxes                      40.9   3.3      40.1        3.3 
                   Travel                     26.6   2.0      26.8        2.0 
            Meals/entertainment               35.8   1.1      36.2        1.1 
                 Utilities                    54.0   4.6      53.5        4.7 
                   Wages                      10.7   15.2     10.1       14.7 
                   Other                      72.8   20.8     72.3       21.8 
                Home office                   15.6   1.4      16.4        1.4 
                   Totalc                            100%                100% 
     Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.                               

Notes: Estimates in the first and third columns have sampling errors of
(+/-) 2 percentage points or less. Estimates in the second and fourth
columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 10 percent or less of the value of
the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

cTotals may not add to 100 percent due to rounding.

  Appendix II Information on the Percent of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expenses on
              Schedule C and Schedule F in Tax Years 2000 and 2001

Table 2: Percentage of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expense Categories on
Schedule F, Tax Years 2000 and 2001

Ca

                                                                 2000 2001   
                                                  Percentage of Expense as   
                                                  Percentage of Expense as   
                                               taxpayers who percentage of   
                                               taxpayers who percentage of   
Expense category claimed expense total                                    
expenses claimed expense total expenses                                   
                                                                       a a   

r/truck

              Chemicals                     a                a      
            Conservation                    a                a      
             Custom hire                 30.9    2.7        31.2    
            Depreciation                 78.3    15.7       78.7    
      Employee benefit programs           2.2    0.3c       2.5          0.3c 

aa

Feed purchased

aa

Fertilizers/lime

aa

Freight/trucking

                Gasoline/oil                     64.1     3.8        65.4     
                 Insurance                          a                  a      
            Interest on mortgage                 24.1     4.0        25.5     
      Interest on other business debt            30.0     4.3        30.5     
                Labor hired                      24.9     4.9        25.3     
        Pension/profit sharing plans              0.2    0.0d         0.2     

aa

Rent on machinery/equipment

aa

Rent on other business property

Repairs 73.8 6.5 72.8 6.5 Seeds/plants 39.0 3.8 37.3 3.8

aa

Storage/warehousing
Supplies 63.5 3.4 62.9 3.1

aa

Taxes

aa

Utilities

aa

Veterinary/medicine
Other expensesb 97.3 50.8 97.1 50.8
Totale 100% 100%

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first and third columns have sampling errors of
(+/-) 3 percentage points or less. Estimates in the second and fourth
columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 10 percent or less of the value of
the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aIncluded with Other expenses.

bIncludes: Car/truck, Chemicals, Conservation, Feed purchased,
Fertilizers/lime, Freight/trucking, Insurance, Rent on
machinery/equipment, Rent on other business property, Storage/warehousing,
Taxes, Utilities, and Veterinary/medicine as well as any expenses
taxpayers included in the Other expenses category.

Appendix II Information on the Percent of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expenses
on Schedule C and Schedule F in Tax Years 2000 and 2001

cSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate. dSampling errors exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate. eTotals may not add to 100 percent due to rounding.

Appendix III

Information on the Amounts and Ranges of Expenses Reported on Schedule C
and Schedule F

As we reported earlier, the amounts and ranges of expenses that sole
proprietors reported on Schedule Cs and Schedule Fs varied widely. This
appendix provides greater detail on these measures. In particular, the
tables in the appendix provide information on the percentile ranges for
the expenses. To mitigate the possibility of presenting unusual outliers
and because of taxpayer disclosure concerns, we do not provide the minimum
and maximum values. Rather we provide estimates of the 1st and 99th
percentiles. Estimates of the mean and median expenses are also provided.

Appendix III Information on the Amounts and Ranges of Expenses Reported on
                           Schedule C and Schedule F

 Table 3: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Amount and Range,
                                 Tax Year 2000

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2000

       Expense category           Total Mean  1st  10th  Median  90th   99tha 
         Advertising        $10,148,616 $2.0 $0.01 $0.05 $0.46  $4.44  $22.45 
          Bad debts            983,868b 2.6b 0.01d 0.06c  0.49b 4.50c   30.55 
          Car/truck          45,711,214  4.4 0.05  0.29    2.36  9.75   32.56 
         Commissions         11,610,550 10.1 0.01e 0.08c  1.09b 19.35c 139.77 
          Depletion            684,974b 8.1c 0.01e 0.07d  1.05d 14.51d 110.57 
         Depreciation        32,196,152  5.0 0.02e 0.22    1.83 11.74   42.73 
       Employee benefit       1,871,875  5.7 0.05d 0.41c  2.85b 12.69b  36.21 
           programs                                                    
          Insurance          13,623,747  2.5 0.04  0.17    0.95  5.66   22.76 
     Interest on mortgage     5,250,896  6.3 0.04d 0.43    2.78 13.37b  55.44 
      Interest on other       6,981,950  3.6 0.01d 0.11    1.08  7.12   31.72 
        business debt                                                  
      Legal/professional      7,312,591  1.0 0.02  0.07    0.25  1.93   12.00 
           services                                                    
            Office           10,456,413  1.4 0.01  0.06    0.45  3.41   15.26 
    Pension/profit sharing      892,873  5.8 0.01e 0.40c  3.52b 12.86b  40.03 
            plans                                                      
           Rent on                       4.0 0.03  0.12    1.47 9.07b   35.18 
     machinery/equipment      8,880,267                                

Rent on other business property 24,342,102 8.2 0.04 0.41 4.02 18.98 60.41
Repairs 12,280,522 2.7 0.02 0.09 0.82 6.30 28.28 Supplies 21,793,943 2.7
0.02 0.10 0.80 5.39 29.67 Taxes 13,955,915 2.4 0.01 0.04 0.34 5.69 29.21
Travel 8,457,309 2.2 0.02 0.12 0.84 4.96 19.87 Meals/entertainment
4,664,691 0.9 0.01 0.04 0.33 2.28 7.29 Utilities 19,381,870 2.5 0.02 0.18
1.09 5.84 19.19 Wages 63,485,482 40.8 0.12 1.03c 16.37 96.47 330.87 Other
87,025,927 8.2 0.02 0.17 1.58 14.04 96.40 Home office 5,642,543 2.5 0.07
0.37 1.54 5.59 13.66 All categories $417,636,291f $28.8 $0.10 $1.03 $8.80
$62.23 $316.05

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first, second, fifth, and sixth columns have
sampling errors of (+/-) 10 percent or less of the value of the estimates
unless otherwise noted. Estimates in the third column have sampling errors
of (+/-) 50 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted. Estimates in the fourth column have sampling errors of (+/-) 20
percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aFor these estimates we are more than 95 percent confident that the actual
percentile is at least 80 percent of the estimate shown.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.

Appendix III Information on the Amounts and Ranges of Expenses Reported on
Schedule C and Schedule F

cSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.
dSampling errors exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.
eReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.
fTotal may not add due to rounding.

Appendix III Information on the Amounts and Ranges of Expenses Reported on
                           Schedule C and Schedule F

 Table 4: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Amount and Range,
                                 Tax Year 2001

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2001

       Expense category           Total Mean  1st  10th  Median  90th   99tha 
         Advertising        $10,774,079 $2.1 $0.01 $0.05 $0.47  $4.62  $22.71 
          Bad debts          1,176,324c 2.8c 0.02e 0.05c 0.50c  4.47c   25.42 
          Car/truck          47,351,940  4.5 0.04  0.31   2.48  10.02   32.31 
         Commissions         12,130,077 10.5 0.02  0.10  1.19b  17.14c 164.89 
          Depletion            693,669b 7.8b 0.00e 0.08d 1.36c  11.91d 111.06 
         Depreciation        33,425,567  5.2 0.03  0.21   1.83  12.02   46.13 
       Employee benefit       2,040,639  6.4 0.08  0.46c 3.45b  13.53b  37.16 
           programs                                                    
          Insurance          14,367,018  2.6 0.03  0.19   1.01   5.97   24.08 
     Interest on mortgage     5,456,226  6.6 0.02d 0.45   2.86  14.31b  55.44 
      Interest on other       7,053,321  3.6 0.01  0.11   1.10   7.48   31.88 
        business debt                                                  
      Legal/professional      7,482,619  1.1 0.02  0.07   0.25   1.87   12.37 
           services                                                    
            Office           10,604,805  1.4 0.01  0.06   0.45   3.27   15.90 
    Pension/profit sharing     991,892b  6.0 0.00e 0.34d 3.15b  13.10b  43.73 
            plans                                                      
           Rent on                       3.8 0.02  0.13  1.35b  8.31b   37.53 
     machinery/equipment      8,522,008                                

Rent on other business property 25,119,124 8.6 0.04 0.43 4.16 20.05 64.49
Repairs 12,129,756 2.7 0.02 0.09 0.77 6.28 27.65 Supplies 23,074,836 2.8
0.02c 0.11 0.78 5.49 32.11 Taxes 14,214,082 2.4 0.01 0.04 0.35 5.65 29.96
Travel 8,657,266 2.2 0.02 0.11 0.83 4.98 20.22 Meals/entertainment
4,735,312 0.9 0.01 0.04 0.34 2.19 7.14 Utilities 20,482,680 2.6 0.03 0.19
1.15 5.97 21.07 Wages 63,826,020 42.5 0.10d 0.90c 17.52 99.16 349.47 Other
94,612,276 8.8 0.02 0.19 1.71 14.81 105.22 Home office 5,981,403 2.5 0.06
0.38 1.54 5.55 13.10 All categories $434,902,937f $29.3 $0.10e $1.04 $8.97
$62.05 $318.88

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first, second, fifth, and sixth columns have
sampling errors of (+/-) 10 percent or less of the value of the estimates
unless otherwise noted. Estimates in the third column have sampling errors
of (+/-) 50 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted. Estimates in the fourth column have sampling errors of (+/-) 20
percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aFor these estimates we are more than 95 percent confident that the actual
percentile is at least 80 percent of the estimate shown.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.

Appendix III Information on the Amounts and Ranges of Expenses Reported on
Schedule C and Schedule F

cSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.
dSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.
eReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.
fTotal may not add due to rounding.

Appendix III Information on the Amounts and Ranges of Expenses Reported on
                           Schedule C and Schedule F

  Table 5: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule F Compiled by SOI by
                        Amount and Range, Tax Year 2000

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2000

    Expense category          Total Mean     1st 10th  Median  90th     99tha 
       Custom hire       $2,763,207 $4.4  $0.05  $0.18  $1.21 $10.30   $43.22 
      Depreciation       16,074,177 10.1   0.05  0.37    3.76  24.62    79.77 
    Employee benefit       296,282c  6.6c 0.20f  0.81e  5.54d  12.21    35.87 
        programs                                                      
      Gasoline/oil        3,843,670   2.9  0.02  0.10    1.00  7.22     29.39 
       Interest on        4,072,378   8.3 0.10e  0.62    3.87  18.52    70.24 
        mortgage                                                      
    Interest on other     4,381,129   7.2 0.03e  0.32    2.22  16.70    65.41 
      business debt                                                   
       Labor hired        4,977,414   9.8  0.03  0.11e  1.50d 19.72d   114.68 
     Pension/profit         30,525f  7.7f 0.16f  0.31f  1.48e 15.94e    66.76 
      sharing plans                                                   
         Repairs          6,651,168   4.4 0.02e  0.20    1.47  10.70    41.68 
      Seeds/plants        3,848,517   4.9 0.01e  0.10   1.09d  11.60    53.24 
        Supplies          3,425,979   2.7 0.01e  0.11    0.81  5.89     24.70 
     Other expensesb     51,903,473 26.2  0.07e  0.73    5.61  58.54   290.44 
     All categories    $102,267,920 $50.3 $0.11e $1.66 $12.77 $120.19 $535.15 

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first and second columns have sampling errors of
(+/-) 10 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted. Estimates in the third and fourth columns have sampling errors of
(+/-) 50 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted. Estimates in the fifth and sixth columns have sampling errors of
(+/-) 20 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted.

aFor these estimates we are more than 95 percent confident that the actual
percentile is at least 80 percent of the estimate shown.

bIncludes: Car/truck, Chemicals, Conservation, Feed purchased,
Fertilizers/lime, Freight/trucking, Insurance, Rent on
machinery/equipment, Rent on other business property, Storage/warehousing,
Taxes, Utilities, and Veterinary/medicine as well as any expenses
taxpayers included in the Other expenses category.

cSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.

dSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

eSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

fReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.

Appendix III Information on the Amounts and Ranges of Expenses Reported on
                           Schedule C and Schedule F

  Table 6: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule F Compiled by SOI by
                        Amount and Range, Tax Year 2001

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2001

    Expense category          Total Mean     1st 10th  Median  90th     99tha 
       Custom hire       $2,754,246  $4.4 $0.04  $0.18 $1.35  $10.02   $49.11 
      Depreciation       17,173,495  11.0 0.06f  0.40    4.28  29.44    86.14 
    Employee benefit       321,002d  6.5c 0.07f  0.63e 4.96d  12.38d    26.81 
        programs                                                      
      Gasoline/oil        3,937,424   3.0   0.02 0.10    0.97    7.73   29.29 
       Interest on        4,407,472   8.7 0.07e  0.52    4.02  20.73    68.43 
        mortgage                                                      
    Interest on other     4,420,903   7.3 0.04e  0.27    2.21  17.72    67.17 
      business debt                                                   
       Labor hired        5,235,195  10.4 0.02f  0.15  1.41d  22.31d   118.32 
     Pension/profit         11,593d  2.9d 0.11f  0.27e 1.12e   5.78e    32.29 
      sharing plans                                                   
         Repairs          6,893,101   4.8   0.03 0.22    1.63  11.64    43.88 
      Seeds/plants        4,076,730   5.5 0.02e  0.10  1.30d   13.25    59.03 
        Supplies          3,335,593   2.7 0.02e  0.12    0.88    6.17   26.63 
     Other expensesb     54,241,466  28.0   0.10 0.84    6.02  61.90   307.07 
     All categories    $106,808,219 $53.6 $0.10e $1.70 $13.41 $128.29 $561.95 

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in first and second columns have sampling errors of (+/-)
10 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.
Estimates in the third and fourth columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 50
percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.
Estimates in the fifth and sixth columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 20
percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aFor the estimates in the seventh column, we are more than 95 percent
confident that the actual percentile is at least 80 percent of the
estimate shown.

bIncludes: Car/truck, Chemicals, Conservation, Feed purchased,
Fertilizers/lime, Freight/trucking, Insurance, Rent on
machinery/equipment, Rent on other business property, Storage/warehousing,
Taxes, Utilities, and Veterinary/medicine as well as any expenses
taxpayers included in the Other expenses category.

cSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.

dSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

eSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

fReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.

Appendix IV

Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected Business
Characteristics

As discussed previously, the data showed wide variability in the expenses
of sole proprietorships based on business characteristics such as size
(measured in gross receipts), industry category, businesses with
inventories, and businesses with home offices. This appendix provides
detailed information on Schedule C expenses by these business
characteristics. Comparable data on Schedule F expenses were not
available.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

Table 7: Percentage of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expense Categories on
Schedule C by Size Based on Business Gross Receipts, Tax Year 2000

                            Business gross receipts

                Under $25,000 $25,000 to $100,000 Over $100,000

                                 Expense               Expense               Expense 
                   Percentage category   Percentage category   Percentage   category 
                              as                    as                            as 
                           of            of                    of                    
                    taxpayers percentage taxpayers  percentage taxpayers  percentage
                          who   of total who          of total who          of total 
                      claimed            claimed               claimed    
 Expense category     expense   expenses    expense   expenses    expense   expenses 
Advertising           24.3        1.9       44.7        2.5       66.4 
    Bad debts             1.7       0.4c        3.0       0.2b        6.3       0.2a 
    Car/truck            65.1       21.7       81.2       18.5       81.6 
Commissions            5.6       1.4b        9.8       1.9a       14.5 
    Depletion             0.7       0.2c        0.4       0.1c        0.6       0.2b 
Depreciation          33.8        9.3       53.7        9.0       74.2 
 Employee benefit         0.3       0.1c        1.3       0.1b       12.7 
     programs                                                             
    Insurance            21.3        2.3       54.4        3.2       80.0 
Interest on            2.4       1.0b        7.1       1.1a       17.8 
     mortgage                                                             
Interest on other         5.7       1.7b       18.6       1.4a       38.9 
  business debt                                                           
Legal/professional       35.8        2.1       60.4        1.7       78.7 
     services                                                             
      Office             39.5        3.3       59.9        3.0       75.7 
  Pension/profit          0.2       0.1c        0.5       0.1c        6.0 
  sharing plans                                                           

Rent on machinery/equipment 7.9 2.2a 21.5 2.7a 35.7

     Rent on other business property     11.9  4.9    26.5   6.4  46.7    5.8 
                 Repairs                 19.4  2.5a   41.4   3.5  64.1    2.8 
                Supplies                 52.4  8.6    60.8   6.6  63.3    4.0 
                  Taxes                  27.8  1.3    51.5   2.0  78.8    4.3 
                 Travel                  21.4  3.8    31.2   2.7  40.8    1.4 
           Meals/entertainment           27.8  2.0    44.7   1.7  54.4    0.7 
                Utilities                40.0  5.1    70.0   5.5  85.6    4.2 
                  Wages                   2.3  1.5b   11.8  4.5a  46.0   22.2 
                  Other                  63.2  19.0   84.3  19.1  93.5   21.9 
               Home office               13.2  3.5    21.3   2.6  15.5   0.4a 
                 Totald                        100%         100%         100% 
    Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.                                   

Note: Estimates in the first, third, and fifth columns have sampling
errors of (+/-) 2 percentage points or less. Estimates in the second,
fourth, and sixth columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 10 percent or less
of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
Business Characteristics

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.
CSampling errors exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.
dTotals may not add to 100 percent due to rounding.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

Table 8: Percentage of Taxpayers Who Claimed Expense Categories on
Schedule C by Size Based on Business Gross Receipts, Tax Year 2001

                         Business gross receipts amount

Under $25,000 $25,000 to $100,000 Over $100,000

            Percentage Expense as Percentage Expense as Percentage Expense as 
                                                            of     
                    of            of                                          
             taxpayers percentage taxpayers  percentage  taxpayers percentage
                   who   of total who          of total who          of total 
               claimed            claimed               claimed    
Expense                                                                    
category    expense   expenses    expense   expenses    expense   expenses

              Advertising             25.1   2.0    43.1   2.6    64.9  
               Bad debts              2.0    0.5b   2.6    0.1b   6.8    0.3b 
               Car/truck              64.7   21.5   80.9   18.8   80.5  
              Commissions             5.3    1.2b   10.1   2.0a   14.6  
               Depletion              0.6    0.1b   0.5    0.1c   0.7    0.2a 
             Depreciation             32.7   9.5    51.6   8.5    73.9  
       Employee benefit programs      0.3    0.1b   1.3    0.1b   12.3  
               Insurance              20.6   2.3    54.1   3.2    79.2  
         Interest on mortgage         2.3    1.1b   6.9    1.1a   17.8  
    Interest on other business debt   5.7    1.4b   17.7   1.3a   38.1  
      Legal/professional services     36.2   2.1    59.5   1.6    78.8  
                Office                39.5   3.2    59.7   2.9    75.3  
     Pension/profit sharing plans     0.2    0.0c   0.6    0.1c   6.2   
      Rent on machinery/equipment     8.2    2.1a   20.7   2.5a   35.3  
    Rent on other business property   11.4   4.6    26.0   6.3    45.3  

                 Repairs                 19.7  2.6    39.5   3.3  62.5    2.6 
                Supplies                 53.3  8.4    60.3   7.0  63.2    4.0 
                  Taxes                  27.4  1.4    50.7   1.9  76.9    4.2 
                 Travel                  21.9  3.9    31.1   2.7  41.1    1.3 
           Meals/entertainment           27.8  1.8    46.5   1.7  54.4    0.7 
                Utilities                40.2  5.3    68.4   5.6  85.7    4.3 
                  Wages                   2.3  1.5b   10.9  4.4a  43.8   21.5 
                  Other                  63.1  19.7   83.0  19.8  93.7   22.9 
               Home office               14.2  3.6    21.2   2.4  17.5   0.5a 
                 Totald                        100%         100%         100% 
    Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.                                   

Note: Estimates in the first, third, and fifth columns have sampling
errors of (+/-) 2 percentage points or less. Estimates in the second,
fourth, and sixth columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 10 percent or less
of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
Business Characteristics

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.
CSampling errors exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.
dTotals may not add to 100 percent due to rounding.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

Table 9: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Size Based on
                Business Gross Receipts, Tax Years 2000 and 2001

                              Dollars in thousands

Business gross receipts total

                               Under $25,000    $25,000 to     Over $100,000  
                                                 $100,000     
        Expense category            2000 2001       2000 2001      2000       
          Advertising              $1,115,436 $2,387,850           $6,645,329 
                                   $1,267,229 $2,591,984           $6,914,866 
           Bad debts                 217,234b    170,641b            595,992a 
                                     303,444b    145,056b            727,824b 
           Car/truck               12,662,766 18,047,208           15,001,240 
                                   13,516,802 18,616,606           15,218,532 
          Commissions                815,056b 1,857,395a            8,938,100 
                                     763,945b 1,981,873a            9,384,259 
           Depletion          88,207b 78,953b     95,628b            501,139a 
                                                 116,199b            498,517a 
          Depreciation              5,419,350 8,794,872            17,981,931 
                                    6,001,607 8,451,676            18,972,284 
Employee benefit programs  74,362c 57,738b    138,365b           1,659,148 
                                                 131,358b           1,851,542 
           Insurance                1,330,836 3,118,389             9,174,522 
                                    1,449,294 3,190,042             9,727,682 
      Interest on mortgage           566,888a 1,060,497a            3,623,511 
                                     689,164b 1,073,733a            3,693,329 
Interest on other business        978,781b 1,360,883a            4,642,285 
              debt                   910,187b 1,278,587a            4,864,547 
       Legal/professional           1,232,327 1,622,574             4,457,689 
            services                1,316,971 1,559,789             4,605,859 
             Office                 1,933,877 2,900,183             5,622,354 
                                    2,000,186 2,909,072             5,695,547 
     Pension/profit sharing                                                   
             plans            38,274c 27,496c 50,457c 70,066c 804,142 894,330

Rent on machinery/equipment 1,290,642a 1,307,168a 2,612,902a 2,431,023a
4,976,723 4,783,816 Rent on other business property 2,832,479 2,922,305
6,188,327 6,240,658 15,321,295 15,956,161 Repairs 1,471,137a 1,622,908
3,401,489 3,306,118 7,407,896 7,200,730 Supplies 5,013,068 5,323,414
6,405,253 6,945,572 10,375,621 10,805,850 Taxes 778,489 906,450 1,950,810
1,904,286 11,226,616 11,403,346 Travel 2,238,733 2,434,854 2,658,219
2,660,376 3,560,357 3,562,036 Meals/entertainment 1,158,258 1,134,275
1,669,707 1,725,173 1,836,726 1,875,864 Utilities 2,976,362 3,327,822
5,334,535 5,514,404 11,070,973 11,640,455 Wages 871,086b 918,960b
4,425,092a 4,340,403a 58,189,304 58,566,657 Other 11,081,586 12,432,885
18,606,347 19,608,587 57,337,994 62,570,804 Home office 2,064,635
2,294,004 2,498,346 2,396,990 1,079,562a 1,290,409a Totald $58,249,869
$63,008,061 $97,355,972 $99,189,633 $262,030,451 $272,705,243

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in all columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 10 percent or
less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

cSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
Business Characteristics

dTotals may not add due to rounding.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                     Business gross receipts under $25,000

    Table 10: Range Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Size
               Based on Businesses Gross Receipts, Tax Year 2000
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Employee                                                                                       Interest                                            Interest                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
Expense  Total Mean 1st 10th Median 90th 99tha Advertising $1,115,436 $0.52 $0.01 $0.04 $0.22 $1.26   Bad  217,234c 1.48c 0.01d 0.04d 0.24d 2.47d 19.88e Car/truck 12,662,766 2.22 0.03 0.18 1.29 5.28 13.26 Commissions 815,056c 1.66c 0.01 0.04d 0.42c 3.22c 15.86 Depletion 88,207c 1.55c 0.01 0.05d 0.46d 2.99d 20.30 Depreciation 5,419,350 1.83 0.02 0.13 0.93 4.19 12.77 benefit  74,362d 2.70c b 0.16e 1.37d 5.43d 41.80 Insurance 1,330,836 0.71 0.02 0.10 0.43 1.56     on    566,888 2.71 0.03e 0.15d 1.51c 5.50c 26.40 on other 978,781c 1.97c 0.01d 0.07c 0.54 2.55c 12.01 Legal/professional 1,232,327 0.39 0.02 0.05 0.15 0.70  Office 1,933,877 0.56 0.01f 0.04 0.25 1.35  Pension/profit 38,274e 2.81d b 0.04d 0.42d 6.60d 25.08e                               1.87 0.02d 0.10c 0.78c 4.78 13.00
category                                                                                             debts                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      programs                                                                                       mortgage                                            business                                                  services                                                                                      sharing plans                                                 Rent on                                             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     debt                                                                                                                                                                                                          machinery/equipment 1,290,642                             

Rent on other business     2,832,479 2.72  0.03d 0.19c  1.80  6.12   15.11 
          property                                                     
           Repairs            1,471,137 0.86  0.02  0.06   0.37  1.85    6.67 
          Supplies            5,013,068 1.09  0.01  0.07   0.50  2.75    7.97 
            Taxes               778,489 0.32  0.01  0.02   0.13  0.75    2.50 
           Travel             2,238,733 1.19  0.01d 0.10   0.55  2.67    8.42 
     Meals/entertainment      1,158,258 0.47  0.01  0.03   0.19  1.12    4.27 
          Utilities           2,976,362 0.85  0.01  0.10   0.53  1.93    4.87 
            Wages              871,086c 4.39c 0.03d 0.20d 1.42c 7.61c   36.23 
            Other           11,081,586  2.00  0.02  0.10   0.78  4.22   14.74 
         Home office          2,064,635 1.78  0.04d 0.28   1.17  3.92    9.60 
       All categories      $58,249,869f $6.64 $0.06 $0.60 $4.20 $14.52 $32.42 
Source: GAO analysis of                                             
          IRS data.                                                    

Note: Estimates in the first, second, and fourth through sixth columns
have sampling errors of (+/-) 20 percent or less of the value of the
estimates unless otherwise noted. Estimates in the third column have
sampling errors of (+/-) 50 percent or less of the value of the estimates
unless otherwise noted.

aFor these estimates we are more than 95 percent confident that the actual
percentile is at least 80 percent of the estimate shown, unless otherwise
noted.

bPopulation estimates could not be developed.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
Business Characteristics

cSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.
dSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.
eReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.
fTotal may not add due to rounding.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                  Business gross receipts $25,000 to $100,000

    Table 11: Range Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Size
               Based on Businesses Gross Receipts, Tax Year 2000
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Employee                                                                                             Interest                                                Interest                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
Expense  Total Mean 1st 10th Median 90th 99tha Advertising $2,387,850 $1.43 $0.02f $0.08 $0.58 $3.72 $10.97  Bad  170,641d 1.53d 0.01f 0.05e 0.40e 3.00e 11.24f Car/truck 18,047,208 5.92 0.13 0.86 4.11 12.76 30.94 Commissions 1,857,395c 5.06c 0.02f 0.17e 1.66d 15.18d 36.45 Depletion 95,628d 6.03d 0.06f 0.16e 4.67d 14.52d 31.01 Depreciation 8,794,872 4.37 0.04 0.32 2.42 10.70 27.28 benefit  138,365d 2.79d 0.10f 0.43e 1.96d 5.68e 12.28f Insurance 3,118,389 1.53 0.05 0.21 0.91 3.64     on    1,060,497c 3.99c 0.04f 0.43d 2.27d 9.28d 27.65 on other 1,360,883c 1.95c 0.01e 0.13d 0.92 4.41 13.75 Legal/professional 1,622,574 0.72 0.04 0.09 0.26 1.32  Office 2,900,183 1.29 0.02 0.09 0.58 3.19  Pension/profit 50,457e 2.48d b 0.32f 1.47e 6.00d 9.08f                                3.23 0.02 0.12d 1.40 8.17d 21.82
category                                                                                                    debts                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              programs                                                                                             mortgage                                                business                                                   services                                                                                     sharing plans                                                Rent on                                             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              debt                                                                                                                                                                                                         machinery/equipment 2,612,902c                            

Rent on other business property 6,188,327 6.22 0.07 0.53d 4.75 14.00 25.40
Repairs 3,401,489 2.19 0.02 0.12 0.99 5.73 16.13 Supplies 6,405,253 2.81
0.02 0.18 1.21 6.73 22.83 Taxes 1,950,810 1.01 0.01 0.05 0.42 2.60 7.38
Travel 2,658,219 2.27 0.02 0.13 1.03 5.52 16.42 Meals/entertainment
1,669,707 1.00 0.01e 0.07 0.44 2.54 6.62 Utilities 5,334,535 2.03 0.06
0.33 1.40 4.34 10.60 Wages 4,425,092c 9.96 0.15e 0.77e 6.36d 23.68 48.29
Other 18,606,347 5.89 0.05 0.39 2.62 14.38 48.09 Home office 2,498,346
3.13 0.12e 0.56 2.00 6.95 15.16 All categories $97,355,972g $25.95 $1.40
$7.03 $21.13 $50.09 $90.35

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in first and second columns have sampling errors of (+/-)
10 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.
Estimates in the third column have sampling errors of (+/-) 50 percent or
less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted. Estimates in
the fourth, fifth, and sixth columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 20
percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aFor these estimates we are more than 95 percent confident that the actual
percentile is at least 80 percent of the estimate shown, unless otherwise
noted.

bPopulation estimates could not be developed.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
Business Characteristics

cSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.
dSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.
eSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.
fReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.
gTotal may not add due to rounding.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                     Business gross receipts over $100,000

    Table 12: Range Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Size
               Based on Businesses Gross Receipts, Tax Year 2000
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Employee                                                                                                  Interest                                               Interest                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
Expense  Total Mean 1st 10th Median 90th 99tha Advertising $6,645,329 $5.04 $0.03 $0.19 $1.72 $11.41 $47.45  Bad  595,992b 4.76b 0.01e 0.10d 1.07c 6.35c 67.16 Car/truck 15,001,240 9.26 0.16 1.16 5.14 17.88 63.58 Commissions 8,938,100 31.03 0.02e 0.21c 5.70c 67.27c 382.23 Depletion 501,139b 41.69c 0.03d 0.45d 13.47d 84.54c 408.86 Depreciation 17,981,931 12.21 0.10e 0.85 5.46 27.40 90.85 benefit  1,659,148 6.57 0.05d 0.50c 3.70b 13.65 40.12 Insurance 9,174,522 5.77 0.13 0.65 3.17 12.76 40.82    on    3,623,511 10.26 0.10d 0.80c 4.80b 21.93 86.74 on other 4,642,285 6.01 0.01d 0.22c 2.17b 12.03 51.52 Legal/professional 4,457,689 2.85 0.06 0.18 0.92 5.37 27.03 Office 5,622,354 3.74 0.03 0.21 1.63 8.88 29.80 Pension/profit 804,142 6.76 0.05e 0.69c 4.25b 14.32 43.01                               7.02 0.04 0.23 2.75b 15.44 64.97
category                                                                                                    debts                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    programs                                                                                                  mortgage                                               business                                                   services                                                                                               sharing plans                                                   Rent on                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        debt                                                                                                                                                                                                                      machinery/equipment 4,976,723                            

Rent on other business property 15,321,295 16.53 0.10d 1.38c 10.20 35.20
99.43 Repairs 7,407,896 5.82 0.03 0.21 2.14 14.12 53.38 Supplies
10,375,621 8.26 0.04 0.35 2.49 18.03 99.32 Taxes 11,226,616 7.18 0.03 0.24
3.30 16.54 55.62 Travel 3,560,357 4.39 0.03 0.20 1.69 10.02 40.85
Meals/entertainment 1,836,726 1.70 0.01 0.09 0.74b 4.50 11.45 Utilities
11,070,973 6.52 0.20 1.00 4.40 13.38 36.51 Wages 58,189,304 63.77 0.61d
5.55c 35.68 132.72 427.62 Other 57,337,994 30.89 0.12 1.01 8.56 58.00
311.15 Home office 1,079,562b 3.51 0.14e 0.68 2.42b 7.44 19.26 All
categories $262,030,451f $131.94 $5.20 $22.56 $81.16 $259.67 $838.39

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first, second, and fifth columns have sampling
errors of (+/-) 10 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless
otherwise noted. Estimates in the third column have sampling errors of
(+/-) 50 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted. Estimates in the fourth and sixth columns have sampling errors of
(+/-) 20 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted.

aFor these estimates we are more than 95 percent confident that the actual
percentile is at least 80 percent of the estimate shown.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
Business Characteristics

cSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.
dSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.
eReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.
fTotal may not add due to rounding.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                     Business gross receipts under $25,000

    Table 13: Range Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Size
               Based on Businesses Gross Receipts, Tax Year 2001
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Employee                                                                                             Interest                                              Interest                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
Expense  Total Mean 1st 10th Median 90th 99tha Advertising $1,267,229 $0.6 $0.01 $0.04 $0.22 $1.20 $5.29  Bad  303,444c 1.7c 0.01e 0.05c 0.30c 2.02d 18.48e Car/truck 13,516,802 2.3 0.03 0.19 1.42 5.48 12.53 Commissions 763,945c 1.6b 0.01d 0.06c 0.44 3.28c 14.06 Depletion 78,953c 1.4c 0.00d 0.07d 0.77d 2.85d 6.06 Depreciation 6,001,607 2.0 0.02 0.13 0.95 4.56 17.15 benefit  57,738c 2.3c 0.18e 0.31d 1.54d 4.46c 7.30e Insurance 1,449,294 0.8 0.02 0.10 0.46 1.78 4.83    on    689,164c 3.4b 0.01e 0.32d 1.84c 7.21c 25.96e on other 910,187c 1.8c 0.01d 0.07c 0.48 2.83c 11.77 Legal/professional 1,316,971 0.4 0.02 0.05 0.16 0.68 3.79 Office 2,000,186 0.6 0.01 0.04 0.25 1.36 4.51 Pension/profit 27,496d 1.5c 0.00e 0.01d 0.80d 3.48e 6.95e                                1.8 0.01d 0.10 0.75c 4.81 9.12
category                                                                                                 debts                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 programs                                                                                             mortgage                                              business                                                 services                                                                                           sharing plans                                                   Rent on                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            debt                                                                                                                                                                                                                machinery/equipment 1,307,168b                           

Rent on other business property 2,922,305 2.8 0.03d 0.20c 1.99 6.17 13.97
Repairs 1,622,908 0.9 0.01e 0.06 0.37 2.33 7.11 Supplies 5,323,414 1.1
0.01 0.07 0.50 2.71 8.41 Taxes 906,450 0.4 0.01e 0.03 0.14 0.86 2.96
Travel 2,434,854 1.2 0.02 0.08 0.56 2.80 8.52 Meals/entertainment
1,134,275 0.5 0.01 0.03 0.20 1.14 3.56 Utilities 3,327,822 0.9 0.01 0.11
0.58 2.03 5.37 Wages 918,960c 4.5c 0.03e 0.19d 1.19c 8.00c 29.94 Other
12,432,885 2.2 0.01 0.11 0.86 4.48 16.32 Home office 2,294,004 1.8 0.04d
0.28 1.12 3.90 10.13 All categories $63,008,061f $7.0 $0.06 $0.59 $4.40
$14.97 $36.26

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first and second columns have sampling errors of
(+/-) 10 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted. Estimates in the third column have sampling errors of (+/-) 50
percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.
Estimates in the fourth, fifth, and six columns have sampling errors of
(+/-) 20 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted.

aFor these estimates we are more than 95 percent confident that the actual
percentile is at least 80 percent of the estimate shown, unless otherwise
noted.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
Business Characteristics

bSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.
cSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.
dSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.
eReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.
fTotal may not add due to rounding.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                  Business gross receipts $25,000 to $100,000

    Table 14: Range Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Size
               Based on Businesses Gross Receipts, Tax Year 2001
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Employee                                                                                               Interest                                               Interest                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
Expense  Total Mean 1st 10th Median 90th 99tha Advertising $2,591,984 $1.6 $0.02 $0.08 $0.68 $4.29 $10.92  Bad  145,056d 1.5d 0.02f 0.07d 0.58e 2.68d 15.53f Car/truck 18,616,606 6.1 0.10 0.88 4.20 12.99 30.91 Commissions 1,981,873c 5.2c 0.02e 0.14d 1.67d 13.91d 51.33 Depletion 116,199d 6.0d 0.04f 0.28e 4.96d 13.78d 24.49f Depreciation 8,451,676 4.3 0.05 0.33 2.40 9.90 27.87 benefit  131,358d 2.7d 0.09f 0.16e 1.83e 6.89d 10.50f Insurance 3,190,042 1.6 0.06 0.25 0.99 3.61 8.06    on    1,073,733c 4.1c 0.03f 0.41d 2.19d 9.02d 32.40 on other 1,278,587c 1.9 0.01e 0.14d 0.97 4.75 11.91 Legal/professional 1,559,789 0.7 0.04 0.09 0.25 1.29 7.82 Office 2,909,072 1.3 0.02 0.10 0.58 3.02 10.15 Pension/profit 70,066e 3.1e b 0.10f 1.17e 9.02e 10.44f                                3.1c 0.02 0.13 1.26d 7.60 21.95
category                                                                                                  debts                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          programs                                                                                               mortgage                                               business                                                 services                                                                                            sharing plans                                                Rent on                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         debt                                                                                                                                                                                                              machinery/equipment 2,431,023c                           

Rent on other business property 6,240,658 6.4 0.04e 0.60 4.79 14.40 26.61
Repairs 3,306,118 2.2 0.03 0.11 0.90 5.70 18.25 Supplies 6,945,572 3.0
0.03 0.18 1.25 7.11 26.84 Taxes 1,904,286 1.0 0.01f 0.05 0.40 2.54 7.52
Travel 2,660,376 2.3 0.03 0.14 1.07 5.49 17.93 Meals/entertainment
1,725,173 1.0 0.02 0.07 0.50 2.44 6.07 Utilities 5,514,404 2.1 0.06 0.37
1.50 4.40 11.69 Wages 4,340,403c 10.5 0.10e 0.75d 6.64d 26.16 48.09 Other
19,608,587 6.2 0.04 0.41 2.88 15.11 45.53 Home office 2,396,990 3.0 0.11
0.55 2.06 6.91 12.96 All categories $99,189,633g $26.2 $1.56 $7.24 $21.42
$51.14 $90.10

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first and second columns have sampling errors of
(+/-) 10 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted. Estimates in the third column have sampling errors of (+/-) 50
percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.
Estimates in the fourth, fifth, and sixth columns have sampling errors of
(+/-) 20 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted.

aFor these estimates we are more than 95 percent confident that the actual
percentile is at least 80 percent of the estimate shown, unless otherwise
noted.

bPopulation estimates could not be developed.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
Business Characteristics

cSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.
dSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.
eSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.
fReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.
gTotal may not add due to rounding.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                     Business gross receipts over $100,000

    Table 15: Range Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Size
               Based on Businesses Gross Receipts, Tax Year 2001
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Employee                                                                                              Interest                                             Interest                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
Expense  Total Mean 1st 10th Median 90th 99tha Advertising $6,914,866 $5.3 $0.03 $0.14c $1.69 $11.92 $51.66  Bad  727,824c 5.3c 0.02d 0.08d 1.08c 8.20c 46.24 Car/truck 15,218,532 9.4 0.11 1.15 5.33 18.90 67.81 Commissions 9,384,259 31.8 0.04 0.30c 4.81c 71.93c 396.84 Depletion 498,517b 34.7c 0.03e 0.45d 7.68d 74.56c 377.74 Depreciation 18,972,284 12.7 0.09 0.75 5.76 28.88 90.13 benefit  1,851,542 7.5 0.08 0.51c 4.40 15.69 42.76 Insurance 9,727,682 6.1 0.13 0.63 3.22 13.32 44.65    on    3,693,329 10.3 0.02d 0.67c 4.41 22.01 91.50 on other 4,864,547 6.3 0.01d 0.21c 2.45 12.70 53.25 Legal/professional 4,605,859 2.9 0.06 0.17 0.90 5.31 31.46 Office 5,695,547 3.7 0.03 0.19 1.57 8.87 31.64 Pension/profit 894,330 7.2 0.06e 0.66c 3.94 15.24 52.70                               6.7 0.04 0.22 2.51 14.96 61.39
category                                                                                                    debts                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            programs                                                                                              mortgage                                             business                                                 services                                                                                             sharing plans                                                 Rent on                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          debt                                                                                                                                                                                                                machinery/equipment 4,783,816                          

Rent on other business property 15,956,161 17.5 0.10d 1.35 10.98 36.49
114.58 Repairs 7,200,730 5.7 0.04 0.22 2.14 13.73 51.01 Supplies
10,805,850 8.5 0.04 0.32 2.56 17.80 96.02 Taxes 11,403,346 7.4 0.03 0.20
3.29 16.97 60.74 Travel 3,562,036 4.3 0.03 0.21 1.64 9.56 40.90
Meals/entertainment 1,875,864 1.7 0.01 0.09 0.80 4.45 11.81 Utilities
11,640,455 6.7 0.24 1.04 4.25 13.69 39.82 Wages 58,566,657 66.3 0.58d 6.56
37.44 136.71 453.02 Other 62,570,804 33.1 0.14 1.05 8.78 62.93 330.17 Home
office 1,290,409b 3.7 0.16 0.66 2.46 7.93 16.96 All categories
$272,705,243f $135.2 $5.38 $23.13 $82.28 $267.14 $876.72

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first and second columns have sampling errors of
(+/-) 10 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted. Estimates in the third column have sampling errors of (+/-) 50
percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.
Estimates in the fourth, fifth, and sixth columns have sampling errors of
(+/-) 20 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise
noted.

aFor these estimates we are more than 95 percent confident that the actual
percentile is at least 80 percent of the estimate shown.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
Business Characteristics

bSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.
cSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.
dSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.
eReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.
fTotal may not add due to rounding.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

  Table 16: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Total Business
                    Gross Receipts, Tax Years 2000 and 2001

                              Dollars in thousands

              Expenses as a percentage of business gross receipts

Expense category 2000

Advertising 1.7

                   Bad debts                             1.2a            1.4b 
                   Car/truck                              6.1 
                  Commissions                            7.8a 
                   Depletion                             7.8b            7.6a 
                  Depreciation                            4.7 
           Employee benefit programs                      1.3 
                   Insurance                              1.9 
              Interest on mortgage                        3.2 
        Interest on other business debt                   1.8 
          Legal/professional services                     1.0 
                     Office                               1.5 
          Pension/profit sharing plans                    1.3 
          Rent on machinery/equipment                     2.7 
        Rent on other business property                   5.6 

Repairs 2.1 2.1 Supplies 3.6 3.8 Taxes 2.0 2.0 Travel 2.1 2.2
Meals/entertainment 0.9 0.9 Utilities 2.5 2.6 Wages 15.1 15.2 Other 9.8
10.7 Home office 4.1 4.3

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in all columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 10 percent or
less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

Table 17: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by Business
                    Gross Receipts, Tax Years 2000 and 2001

                              Dollars in thousands

                          2000 2001 Industry category

Business gross receipts totala

                          Expenses as a percentage of business gross receipts

Business gross receipts totala

                          Expenses as a percentage of business gross receipts

      Accommodation/food services     $36,068,000   55.3  $35,827,892  
    Administrative/waste management     36,977,755  54.0   36,552,989  
         Agriculture/forestry           15,965,777  62.5   15,496,089  
            Arts/recreation             19,544,201  67.8   19,818,497  
             Construction             154,732,186   37.4  159,253,760  
          Education services            4,085,152b  63.9   4,357,558   
           Finance/insurance            99,457,478  26.3   77,723,180   34.8b 
     Health care/social assistance      83,758,190  53.9   89,449,901  
              Information                6,509,562  60.4   7,053,158   
             Manufacturing              27,580,129  40.8   23,976,663  
                Mining                   5,344,455  79.6   6,200,506   
            Other services              62,924,792  50.0   66,224,392  
        Professional/technical        108,778,286   46.4  112,906,070  
          Real estate/leasing           47,217,865  48.7   47,164,765  
            Religious/civic             2,639,655b  48.4   2,396,712b  

Retail trade 174,136,958 26.5 179,437,743 26.8 Transportation/warehousing
50,852,835 76.5 50,676,326 76.3 Utilities 256,908c 71.0b 250,610c 66.0b
Wholesale trade 41,078,866 20.8 38,099,169 22.4 Unclassified 2,390,234b
57.0 1,612,332b 50.0b

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in all columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 20 percent or
less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aSome sole proprietors may claim expenses for multiple businesses, each of
which may fall in different industry categories; only those amounts that
could clearly be associated with a specific industry category are included
in the table.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

cSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                                   2000 2001

Table 18: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses, Tax
                              Years 2000 and 2001
                                                    Expense                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Health                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
 Expense  Expense  percentage  percentage Industry   totala Expense    total Accommodation/food $19,951,050 $20,690,429  Administrative/waste 19,928,104 19,914,615  Agriculture/forestry 9,973,723 9,288,614  Arts/recreation 13,221,156 14,266,382  Construction 57,618,909 60,783,362  Education 2,570,439b 2,734,030  Finance/insurance 25,687,067 26,388,126  care/social 45,096,357 48,249,135  Information 3,920,292 4,120,542  Manufacturing 11,254,726 10,345,963  Mining 4,247,335 4,941,103   Other   31,434,173 33,479,849  Professional/technical 50,302,594 54,340,816                                       
      as       as          of          of category    total  totala expenses      services              4.8                   management             4.8                                        2.4                                   3.2                                13.9             services        0.6b                                     6.2             assistance        10.9                               0.9                                 2.7                          1.0            services        7.6                                          12.1                  Real      22,904,868            
                                                   expenses                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           estate/leasing        5.5 24,233,205 

Religious/civic 1,250,739b 0.3b 1,264,084b 0.3b Retail trade 46,102,269
11.1 48,013,853 11.1 Transportation/warehousing 38,885,750 9.4 38,648,317
9.0 Utilities 181,741c 0.0c 165,375c 0.0c Wholesale trade 8,528,371 2.1
8,510,788 2.0 Unclassified 1,327,310b 0.3b 786,364b 0.2b Totald 100% 100%

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in all columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 20 percent or
less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aSome sole proprietors may claim expenses for multiple businesses, each of
which may fall into a different industry category; only those amounts that
could be associated with a specific industry category are included in the
table.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

cSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

dTotals may not add to 100 percent due to rounding.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                                   2000 2001

Table 19: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses, Tax
                              Years 2000 and 2001
Industry                                       Accommodation/food                                                   Administrative/waste                                                                                                                                                                                                                Education                                                                                                        Health                                                                                                                                                                                                      Other                                                                                                                                                             
category Totala Mean Median Totala Mean Median      services      $19,951,050 $65.8 $22.8b $20,690,429 $63.2 $21.2b      management      19,928,104 17.6 5.1 19,914,615 17.1  Agriculture/forestry 9,973,723 37.0 7.9b 9,288,614 34.8 10.2b Arts/recreation 13,221,156 13.0 4.3 14,266,382 14.5  Construction 57,618,909 30.6 12.1 60,783,362 29.7 11.4 services  2,570,439b 10.0 3.8b 2,734,030 9.4 3.7b Finance/insurance 25,687,067 47.5 12.4 26,388,126 48.7 12.8b care/social 45,096,357 36.2 8.8 48,249,135 37.2  Information 3,920,292 15.6 4.6b 4,120,542 16.6 4.5b Manufacturing 11,254,726 34.5 8.7b 10,345,963 35.1 10.0b Mining 4,247,335 36.7 2.7c 4,941,103 43.7 5.8c services 31,434,173 21.1 8.4 33,479,849 21.5  Professional/technical 50,302,594 23.1 6.8 54,340,816 23.6       Real                 24.6 11.6            25.2 12.2
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       assistance                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             estate/leasing 22,904,868           24,233,205      

Religious/civic 1,250,739b 7.0 3.1b 1,264,084b 7.1 4.2b Retail trade
46,102,269 20.6 4.6 48,013,853 21.7 5.1 Transportation/warehousing
38,885,750 48.6 22.8 38,648,317 45.8 20.1 Utilities 181,741c 13.9c 6.9c
165,375c 20.4c 9.5c Wholesale trade 8,528,371 24.0 9.1b 8,510,788 26.1 9.4
Unclassified 1,327,310b 10.7b 4.1c 786,364b 8.1b 3.6c

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in all columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 20 percent or
less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aSome sole proprietors may claim expenses for multiple businesses, each of
which may fall in different industry categories; only those amounts that
could clearly be associated with a specific industry category are included
in the table.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

cSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                                   2000 2001

    Table 20: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
               Businesses With Inventory, Tax Years 2000 and 2001
  Percentage  Percentage Industry                                   Accommodation/food                 Administrative/waste                                                                                                       Education                                                     Health                                                                                                 Other                                                                                 
     with           with category Totala inventory Totala inventory      services      $120 37.8 $115       management      25 2.0b 33  Agriculture/forestry 13b 4.7b 17b 6.1b Arts/recreation 60 5.7 63  Construction 91 4.6 85  services  5b 1.7b 7b 2.1b                   8b 1.4b 6b 1.0b care/social 21 1.5 15 1.1b Information 18 6.7b 21 7.7b Manufacturing 95 28.0 79  Mining 1c 0.5b 0b 0.2b services 228 14.4 242  Professional/technical 87 3.8 87       Real      12 1.3 18 1.8b
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Finance/insurance                 assistance                                                                                                                                                       estate/leasing           

Religious/civic 0c 0.0b 0c 0.0b Retail trade 1,080 45.7 1,069 46.0
Transportation/warehousing 4b 0.4b 5b 0.6b Utilities 1c 7.1c 1c 10.3c
Wholesale trade 114 30.4 89 26.5 Unclassified 7b 4.4b 6c 4.2b

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in all columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 50 percent or
less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aSome sole proprietors may claim expenses for multiple businesses, each of
which may fall in different industry categories; only those amounts that
could clearly be associated with a specific industry category are included
in the table.

bSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

cReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2000

    Table 21: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
              Businesses With and Without Inventory, Tax Year 2000
      With   Without        Industry Totala        Totala   Mean Accommodation/food $12,242,127       $7,708,923  $65.8 Administrative/waste 1,437,708c       18,490,397                           762,692c      9,211,031 37.0                 1,440,280c      11,780,876                   5,251,889      52,367,020 30.4 Education 97,709d      2,472,730c  9.9                   203,872d       25,483,195 46.9   Health    1,718,444c       43,377,913                  420,743d      3,499,548 15.5               4,478,146       6,776,580 34.3        121,517d       4,125,818 35.7  Other   9,037,826      22,396,347                                                            
 inventory  inventory Total category   Mean Median   Mean Median      services           $102.1 $44.7 $42.0      $22.8c      management           56.8c 15.1d 16.4 4.9   17.3 Agriculture/forestry    58.8d 9.7d 35.9 7.8c 7.9c Arts/recreation      25.1c 5.7d 12.1 4.1   12.9 Construction      57.9 27.2 29.1 11.4  12.0 services    20.0d 4.5d 9.7 3.6c   3.7c Finance/insurance    26.2d 10.5d 47.2 12.0  12.0 care/social      82.7c 42.1d 35.1 8.5   35.9 Information    24.8c 8.5d 14.8 4.5c 4.5c Manufacturing     50.6c 10.1d 28.3 8.5c 8.7c Mining   197.0d 44.6e 34.9 2.4d 2.5d services      40.0 16.1 17.5 7.5   20.9                        1,970,841c 6.0 48,331,754 22.9
                                                   Median                                             $11.4c                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        assistance                                                                                                                                                                                                      Professional/technical      22.9c     22.9 6.8   

Real estate/leasing 933,538c 75.7c 20.2d 21,971,330 23.8 11.3 24.4 11.4
Religious/civic 34,025e 843.2 b 1,216,714c 6.6 2.9c 6.8 2.9c Retail trade
32,881,146 31.4 7.1 13,221,123 10.8 3.3 20.3 4.5
Transportation/warehousing 465,983c 133.1d 34.5d 38,419,768 48.2 22.7 48.5
22.7 Utilities 32,090e 34.4 b 149,652d 12.3d 6.5d 13.9d 6.9d Wholesale
trade 3,614,394 32.4 9.3 4,913,977 20.0 8.8c 23.9 9.1c Unclassified
201,270d 30.3d 12.5d 1,126,040c 9.1c 3.7c 10.2c 3.7d

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first, second, and fourth through eighth columns
have sampling errors of (+/-) 20 percent or less of the value of the
estimates unless otherwise noted. Estimates in the third column have
sampling errors of (+/-) 50 percent or less of the value of the estimates
unless otherwise noted.

aSome sole proprietors may claim expenses for multiple businesses, each of
which may fall in different industry categories; only those amounts that
could clearly be associated with a specific industry category are included
in the table.

bPopulation estimates could not be developed.

cSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

dSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

eReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2001

    Table 22: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
              Businesses With and Without Inventory, Tax Year 2001
      With   Without        Industry Totala        Totala   Mean Accommodation/food $11,456,070       $9,234,359 $62.8 Administrative/waste 1,108,773c      18,805,841                           843,814c       8,444,800 34.5                 1,473,398c      12,792,984                   5,235,774      55,547,588 29.5 Education 72,049e      2,661,981                       174,454d      26,213,673 48.2   Health    1,664,222c 71.6 46,584,913                  548,821       3,571,722 16.6               3,838,574       6,507,389 34.7        152,257d        4,788,846 43.4  Other   9,647,905      23,831,944                                                             
 inventory  inventory Total category   Mean Median   Mean Median      services            $99.4 $44.0 $43.1      $20.7      management           34.3c 8.8d 16.3 4.9   16.8 Agriculture/forestry    49.5c 11.6d 33.5 9.4c 9.8c Arts/recreation      24.1c 5.4d 13.7 4.9   14.3 Construction      62.0 26.2 28.1 11.0  11.2 services    10.6d 2.6d 9.2 3.7c  9.2 Finance/insurance    30.3d 6.5d 48.4 12.4c 12.3 care/social     108.8c    d 35.8 8.3   36.6 Information   27.7c 11.8d 15.6 4.3c 4.5c Manufacturing     51.9c 10.2d 29.0 9.6c 9.8c Mining   573.1d 220.8d 42.2 5.8d 5.8d services      41.4 16.5 17.9 7.8   21.4                        2,530,210c 5.6d 51,810,606 
                                                   Median                                             $13.1                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     assistance                                                                                                                                                                                                      Professional/technical      29.2c      23.2 6.9   23.4

Real estate/leasing 1,023,394c 57.4c 14.3d 23,209,811 24.5 12.2 25.1 12.2
Religious/civic 38,832e 927.0 b 1,225,252c 6.7 4.1c 6.9 4.1c Retail trade
34,382,362 33.0 7.3 13,631,491 11.5 3.8 21.5 5.0
Transportation/warehousing 578,040 d 117.6d 40.9d 38,070,277 45.2 20.0
45.6 20.1 Utilities 18,836d 20.1 b 146,539d 20.4d 9.3d 20.4d 9.5d
Wholesale trade 4,126,679 46.5 13.2d 4,384,109 18.2 8.4 25.8 9.3
Unclassified 38,198e 6.8d 1.1e 748,166c 7.7c 3.3d 7.6c 3.3d

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first, second, and fourth through eighth columns
have sampling errors of (+/-) 20 percent or less of the value of the
estimates unless otherwise noted. Estimates in the third column have
sampling errors of (+/-) 50 percent or less of the value of the estimates
unless otherwise noted.

aSome sole proprietors may claim expenses for multiple businesses, each of
which may fall in different industry categories; only those amounts that
could clearly be associated with a specific industry category are included
in the table.

bPopulation estimates could not be developed.

cSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

dSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

eReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

Table 23: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Businesses
With and Without Home Office Expense, Tax Year 2000

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2000

                      With home office Without home office

         Expense category           Totala Mean Median     Totala Mean Median 
           Advertising          $1,371,577 $1.5  $0.4  $8,777,039 $2.1   $0.5 
            Bad debts             101,880c 1.6c  0.5d    881,988b 2.7b 
            Car/truck            8,094,216  4.4  2.6   37,616,997 4.4  
           Commissions           1,803,729  9.3  1.3c   9,806,822 10.3 
            Depletion               7,190d 1.9d  0.5e    677,783b 8.4c   1.1d 
           Depreciation          5,119,981  3.8  1.7   27,076,170 5.3  
    Employee benefit programs     209,585c  4.1  2.6c   1,662,290 6.0  
            Insurance            1,488,311  1.9  0.7   12,135,436 2.6  
       Interest on mortgage       345,804c  4.0  1.7c   4,905,092 6.6  
    Interest on other business     755,801  2.1  0.9    6,226,148 3.9  
               debt                                                    
Legal/professional services   1,009,482  0.8  0.2    6,303,109 1.1  
              Office             1,715,990  1.2  0.5    8,740,424 1.5  
Pension/profit sharing plans    73,288c 4.1c  3.3c     819,586 6.1  

Rent on machinery/equipment 1,111,101 3.3 1.1c 7,769,166 4.2 1.5 Rent on
other business property 1,185,139 4.2 1.6c 23,156,963 8.6 4.4 Repairs
1,231,555 1.8 0.5 11,048,967 2.9 0.9 Supplies 3,482,106 2.3 0.8 18,311,837
2.8 0.8 Taxes 1,237,442 1.4 0.2 12,718,473 2.5 0.4 Travel 1,685,788 2.3
0.9 6,771,521 2.2 0.8 Meals/entertainment 881,931 0.8 0.3 3,782,760 0.9
0.3 Utilities 2,154,350 1.7 1.0 17,227,520 2.6 1.1 Wages 5,265,814 25.1
7.4c 58,219,668 43.3 18.4 Other 12,381,187 6.7 1.8 74,644,740 8.6 1.5 Home
office 5,642,543 2.5 1.5 n/a n/a n/a Totalf $58,355,790 $359,280,501

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first, second, third, and sixth columns have
sampling errors of (+/-) 20 percent or less of the value of the estimates
unless otherwise noted. Estimates in the fourth and fifth columns have
sampling errors of (+/-) 10 percent or less of the value of the estimates
unless otherwise noted.

aSome sole proprietors may claim expenses for multiple businesses, each of
which may fall in different industry categories; only those amounts that
could clearly be associated with a specific industry category are included
in the table.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
Business Characteristics

bSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.
cSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.
dSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.
eReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.
fTotal may not add due to rounding.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

Table 24: Information on Expense Categories on Schedule C by Businesses
With and Without Home Office Expense, Tax Year 2001

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2001

                      With home office Without home office

         Expense category            Total Mean Median      Total Mean Median 
           Advertising          $1,714,740 $1.7  $0.4  $9,059,338 $2.1   $0.5 
            Bad debts             231,807d 3.1d  0.4b    944,517a 2.8a   0.5b 
            Car/truck            9,164,442 4.7   2.7   38,187,497 4.4  
           Commissions           2,107,584 9.0   1.2b  10,022,493 10.9 
            Depletion              22,478c 2.8c  1.2c    671,191a 8.3a   1.4c 
           Depreciation          5,521,567 4.0   1.6   27,904,000 5.6  
    Employee benefit programs     232,760b 4.7b  3.0b   1,807,879 6.7  
            Insurance            1,714,384 1.9   0.8   12,652,634 2.7  
       Interest on mortgage       344,775b 3.4   1.7b   5,111,451 7.1  
    Interest on other business     775,430 2.0   0.9    6,277,891 4.0  
               debt                                                    
Legal/professional services   1,152,437 0.9   0.2    6,330,182 1.1  
              Office             1,878,875 1.3   0.5    8,725,930 1.5  
Pension/profit sharing plans    47,866b 3.2b  1.1c    944,026a 6.2a 

Rent on machinery/equipment 1,185,234 3.0 0.8b 7,336,773 4.0 1.4 Rent on
other business property 1,329,368 4.8 1.6c 23,789,756 9.0 4.4 Repairs
1,347,778 1.9 0.4 10,781,978 2.8 0.8 Supplies 4,046,055 2.5 0.8 19,028,780
2.8 0.8 Taxes 1,321,350 1.3 0.2 12,892,731 2.6 0.4 Travel 1,882,599 2.3
0.8 6,774,668 2.1 0.8 Meals/entertainment 972,722 0.8 0.3 3,762,591 0.9
0.3 Utilities 2,465,395 1.8 1.0 18,017,285 2.8 1.2 Wages 5,653,834 26.1
9.3b 58,172,186 45.3 19.5 Other 13,304,153 6.9 1.9 81,308,123 9.2 1.7 Home
office 5,981,403 2.5 1.5 n/a n/a n/a Totale $64,399,036 $370,503,901

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first, second, third and sixth columns have
sampling errors of (+/-) 20 percent or less of the value of the estimates
unless otherwise noted. Estimates in the fourth and fifth columns have
sampling errors of (+/-) 10 percent or less of the value of the estimates
unless otherwise noted.

aSampling error is between (+/-) 10 and (+/-) 20 percent of the value of
the estimate.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
Business Characteristics

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.
cSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.
dReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.
eTotal may not add due to rounding.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2000

    Table 25: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
               Businesses With Home Office Expense, Tax Year 2000
 Percentage     claiming Total                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Health                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
         of         home   of     Industry expenses expenses Mean Median Accommodation/food 5.7 $45,238c $2.6b $1.4c Administrative/waste 14.0 280,282b 1.7  Agriculture/forestry 6.2 21,741c 1.3b 0.8c Arts/recreation 12.9 332,943b 2.5 1.8b Construction 14.4 591,500 2.2  Education 16.9 93,139b 2.1b 1.4b Finance/insurance 16.3 204,671b 2.3 1.6b care/social 27.1 1,239,955 3.6  Information 16.8 101,637b 2.4b 1.4b Manufacturing 15.4 148,105b 2.9b 1.6c Mining 2.0 7,888d 3.3c 3.5d  Other   9.0 265,521b 2.0 1.2b Professional/technical 21.1 1,264,367 2.7                 11.8          2.5 1.6b
 businesses       office  home    category          claimed                   services                                    management                                                                                                                                          services                                                                  assistance                                                                                                                            services                                                                       Real                        
                         office                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         estate/leasing      272,712b     

Religious/civic 5.2 15,724d 1.6d 0.4d Retail trade 11.6 478,860b 1.8
Transportation/warehousing 6.5 73,700b 1.4b 1.0b Utilities 7.1d 1,761d
1.9d a Wholesale trade 18.8 157,851b 2.4b 1.8b Unclassified 7.1 27,598c
2.9c 1.1c

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first column have sampling errors of (+/-) 10
percent or less of the value of the estimates. Estimates in the second,
third, and fourth columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 20 percent or less
of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aPopulation estimates could not be developed.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

cSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

dReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.

Appendix IV Information on the Expenses Reported on Schedule C by Selected
                            Business Characteristics

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2001

    Table 26: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
               Businesses With Home Office Expense, Tax Year 2001
 Percentage Total    claiming   home   Industry          expenses             Accommodation/food                         Administrative/waste                                                                                                                               Education                                                          Health                                                                                                                             Other                                                                                                
         of    of        home office   category expenses claimed  Mean Median      services      6.6 $44,575 $2.0b $1.8c      management      15.7 345,992 1.9  Agriculture/forestry 8.3 30,240c 1.4b 0.9c Arts/recreation 13.2 352,842 2.7  Construction 14.2 636,034 2.2  services  18.0 100,108 1.9b  Finance/insurance 13.7 204,760 2.7  care/social 27.2 1,259,834 3.5  Information 19.1 110,585 2.3b 1.7c Manufacturing 18.0 119,709 2.2b 1.4c Mining 3.6 9,644d 2.4c 0.7d services 10.8 363,851 2.1  Professional/technical 21.7 1,347,227 2.7       Real      14.3         2.2 
 businesses            office                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                assistance                                                                                                                                                                                                estate/leasing      302,482     

Religious/civic 6.3 18,703c 1.6b 1.6c Retail trade 12.4 460,247 1.7 0.8
Transportation/warehousing 6.5 83,564 1.5b 1.1 Utilities 35.3b 3,085d 1.1b
a Wholesale trade 18.6 160,637 2.6 2.0 Unclassified 3.9 6,942d 1.7c 0.8d

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first column have sampling errors of (+/-) 10
percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.
Estimates in the second and fourth columns have sampling errors of (+/-)
50 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.
Estimates in the third column have sampling errors of (+/-) 20 percent or
less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

aPopulation estimates could not be developed.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

cSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

dReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.

Appendix V

Information on Cost of Goods Sold for Businesses With Inventories and
Depreciation Expenses by Industry Categories

This appendix provides detailed information on the cost of goods sold for
businesses with inventories.1 It also provides information on the
depreciation expense category by industry categories for the Schedule C.

1Generally, businesses in which the production, purchase, or sale of
merchandise was income producing must account for inventories at the
beginning and end of the tax year. Cost of goods sold is the difference
between the inventory at the end of the year and the inventory at the
beginning of the year after adding the cost of merchandise bought for sale
and/or the cost of raw materials, labor, materials, and supplies used to
fabricate a saleable product.

Appendix V Information on Cost of Goods Sold for Businesses With Inventories and
                  Depreciation Expenses by Industry Categories

Dollars in thousands

                                      2000

    Table 27: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
     Cost of Goods Sold for Businesses With and Without Inventory, Tax Year
                                      2000
      With   Without        Industry Totala        Totala   Mean Accommodation/food $10,372,483       $4,046,147 $69.5 Administrative/waste 1,743,378      6,514,970 24.9c                      1,772,783d       3,255,437 61.9c                 769,798d      1,302,265 8.4c              12,147,827      62,171,916 70.0 Education 27,931e      344,899d 6.9d                   6,385,437      55,154,549 706.5c   Health    659,024       3,727,951 17.6             383,863d      843,672d 15.7c               7,464,505       4,933,207             164,599e       678,420 20.8c  Other   9,508,833     9,765,939                                                            
 inventory  inventory Total category   Mean Median   Mean Median      services            $86.8 $42.5 $46.0      $31.7      management          71.5d 4.2d 21.2 1.0d  1.1d Agriculture/forestry     167.8d 12.6d 46.1 1.9e  3.5d Arts/recreation    14.9d 1.3d  6.7 0.4e 0.7d Construction      139.0 38.6 63.9 16.9  18.0 services     5.7e 0.5e   7.0d b    b Finance/insurance    825.8d 4.4d 694.8 b         b care/social    33.5 11.2d 16.2 0.3e 0.6d Information    22.6d 2.5d  13.8d b  0.3e Manufacturing      88.2 10.3d  42.3 7.8 61.6 Mining   266.9d 89.8e  17.0 b     b services      42.8 9.5  21.4 4.4 28.4                        2,457,226 4.2d 12,205,477 
                                                   Median                                             $15.9d                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       assistance                                                                                                                                                                                               Professional/technical      31.3      29.6 1.9d  29.8

       Real estate/leasing 1,496,405 128.6 31.3d 3,518,578 26.1 b 34.2c b

     Religious/civic          185,249e 4,591.0     b    52,902d 1.5d      b 6.8e      b 
       Retail trade        105,808,928  102.8    7.5 16,187,306 26.6    2.7 74.5  
Transportation/warehousing    459,085d 131.2d  47.4d  5,363,752 51.3   5.1d 53.9c  8.8d 
        Utilities              31,343e  33.6       b         9e 0.0e      b 16.0e     b 
     Wholesale trade        17,236,104  164.5  12.6d 10,850,304 104.9 10.7d 134.9 11.1d 
       Unclassified           320,376d  48.2d   4.0d   131,019d 3.4d      b 10.0d  0.5e 

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first through sixth and eighth columns have
sampling errors of (+/-) 50 percent or less of the value of the estimates
unless otherwise noted. Estimates in the seventh column have sampling
errors of (+/-) 20 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless
otherwise noted.

aSome sole proprietors may claim expenses for multiple businesses, each of
which may fall in different industry categories; only those amounts that
could clearly be associated with a specific industry category are included
in the table.

bPopulation estimates could not be developed.

cSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

dSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

eReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.

Appendix V Information on Cost of Goods Sold for Businesses With Inventories and
                  Depreciation Expenses by Industry Categories

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2001

    Table 28: Information by Industry Categories for Schedule C Expenses by
     Cost of Goods Sold for Businesses With and Without Inventory, Tax Year
                                      2001
      With   Without        Industry Totala        Totala   Mean Accommodation/food $9,522,474       $4,735,444 $65.7 Administrative/waste 1,273,743      6,347,815                            1,835,940      3,729,339 62.6c                 668,514      1,004,029 6.8c              11,233,582       62,303,236 69.0 Education 71,740e      267,392d 4.9d                   5,344,847      34,664,644 531.2c   Health    720,115       3,822,110 18.5             375,140d      1,435,823d 24.5c               6,257,623      4,460,457 60.1        290,406e        677,036 29.1c                                        
 inventory  inventory Total category   Mean Median   Mean Median      services           $82.8 $37.9 $46.5      $24.4      management          42.2d 5.1d 21.0 0.9d 22.9c Agriculture/forestry    113.7d 9.1d 51.3 3.6d  5.3d Arts/recreation   12.4d 1.1d 5.3 b     0.4d Construction      137.3 32.0d 63.3 16.6  17.6 services    10.5e 2.8d   4.2d b    b Finance/insurance    927.9d 4.8e 498.3 b         b care/social    47.2 17.6d 16.6 0.2e 0.4e Information     19.1 3.8d 26.4d 0.1e  1.3d Manufacturing      88.1 8.8d 41.6 7.7d 7.9d Mining 1,097.2d 426.0d  20.5 b     b  Other   9,986,625     10,253,868 
                                                   Median                                            $14.2d                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     assistance                                                                                                                                                           services      43.6 7.8 22.7 4.3   29.7

Professional/technical 2,201,470 26.4 2.6d 12,104,715 29.9 1.8d 29.3

Real estate/leasing 1,487,003 106.7d 12.2d 2,441,076 21.4 b 30.7c b
Religious/civic 52,547e 1,254.4 b 85,370d 2.5d b 4.1d b Retail trade
108,304,195 105.7 8.0 16,809,689 28.3 2.4 77.2 Transportation/warehousing
452,784d 99.3d 29.1d 5,011,826 47.8 5.2d 50.0c 5.9d Utilities 21,858e 23.3
b 1,658e 47.5e b 24.2 11.4e Wholesale trade 17,331,067 207.5 20.5d
8,807,787 76.3 8.9d 131.4 11.9d Unclassified 16,282e 5.4e b 222,783e 10.9e
b 10.2e b

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in the first through sixth and eighth columns have
sampling errors of (+/-) 50 percent or less of the value of the estimates
unless otherwise noted. Estimates in the seventh column have sampling
errors of (+/-) 20 percent or less of the value of the estimates unless
otherwise noted.

aSome sole proprietors may claim expenses for multiple businesses, each of
which may fall in different industry categories; only those amounts that
could clearly be associated with a specific industry category are included
in the table.

bPopulation estimates could not be developed.

cSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

dSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

eReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.

Appendix V Information on Cost of Goods Sold for Businesses With Inventories and
                  Depreciation Expenses by Industry Categories

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2000

     Table 29: Depreciation Expense Reported on Schedule C by Industry, Tax
                                   Year 2000
    Percentage Industry                          Accommodation/food                        Administrative/waste                                                                                                                                Education                                                               Health                                                                                                                            Other                                                                                                 
            of category Totala Mean Median total      services      $1,362,847 $6.8 $2.8b       management      1,773,549 3.9 1.6  Agriculture/forestry 1,551,461 8.6 3.1b  Arts/recreation 1,332,323 3.2 1.3  Construction 5,567,136 6.1 2.6  services  161,559b 1.7b 0.9c 0.5b Finance/insurance 737,642 3.5 1.8b  care/social 1,995,423 4.3 1.4b  Information 312,506b 3.3b 1.8b 1.0b Manufacturing 954,184 5.5 1.8b  Mining 385,456b 9.5b 1.5c 1.2b services 2,324,806 3.8 1.6  Professional/technical 2,942,314 2.9 1.5       Real                5.2 2.0 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     assistance                                                                                                                                                                                               estate/leasing 2,070,830         

Religious/civic 79,147c 2.2c 0.6c 0.2c Retail trade 2,613,567 3.2 1.1 8.2
Transportation/warehousing 5,141,384 13.8 7.3 16.1 Utilities 9,805d 3.2c
2.3c 0.0c Wholesale trade 561,459 4.1 1.8b 1.8b Unclassified 53,225c 2.1c
0.5c 0.2c Totale 100%

Source: GAO analysis of IRS's data.

Note: Estimates in all columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 20 percent or
less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

Note: This table shows the total depreciation expenses claimed by sole
proprietors in tax year 2000 for all property depreciation
classifications. Depreciation classification depends on the type of
property being depreciated. For example IRS classifies automobiles, light
trucks, copiers, and computers as 5year property; office furniture,
railroad track, and property not otherwise classified as 7-year property;
and vessels, barges, and fruit-bearing trees as 10-year property.

aSome sole proprietors may claim expenses for multiple businesses, each of
which may fall into a different industry category; only those amounts that
could clearly be associated with a specific industry category are included
in the table.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

cSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

dReliable confidence intervals could not be computed for estimates.

Appendix V Information on Cost of Goods Sold for Businesses With
Inventories and Depreciation Expenses by Industry Categories

              eTotals may not add to 100 percent due to rounding.

Appendix V Information on Cost of Goods Sold for Businesses With Inventories and
                  Depreciation Expenses by Industry Categories

                              Dollars in thousands

                                      2001

     Table 30: Depreciation Expense Reported on Schedule C by Industry, Tax
                                   Year 2001
    Percentage Industry                          Accommodation/food                       Administrative/waste                                                                                                                                Education                                                               Health                                                                                                                           Other                                                                                                 
            of category Totala Mean Median total      services      $1,381,432 $7.1 $2.9       management      1,804,973 4.0 1.5  Agriculture/forestry 1,498,533 9.0 2.8b  Arts/recreation 1,461,440 3.7 1.4  Construction 5,693,640 6.3 2.7  services  148,570b 1.6b 1.0b 0.4b Finance/insurance 734,191 3.7 2.0b  care/social 2,122,563 4.5 1.7  Information 403,100b 3.4b 1.1c 1.2b Manufacturing 862,046 6.0 1.8b  Mining 434,656b 9.0b 1.8b 1.3b services 2,574,589 3.9 1.7  Professional/technical 3,120,335 3.1 1.5       Real                5.7 2.0 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    assistance                                                                                                                                                                                              estate/leasing 2,312,717         

Religious/civic 83,271c 2.2c 0.9c 0.3c Retail trade 2,900,314 3.7 1.3 8.8
Transportation/warehousing 4,967,507 13.4 7.0 15.0 Utilities 21,231c 5.3c
2.9b 0.1c Wholesale trade 568,985 4.1 1.6b 1.7b Unclassified 32,931c 3.1c
1.2c 0.1c Totald 100%

Source: GAO analysis of IRS data.

Note: Estimates in all columns have sampling errors of (+/-) 20 percent or
less of the value of the estimates unless otherwise noted.

Note: This table shows the total depreciation expenses claimed by sole
proprietors in tax year 2001 for all property depreciation
classifications. Depreciation classification depends on the type of
property being depreciated. For example IRS classifies automobiles, light
trucks, copiers, and computers as 5year property; office furniture,
railroad track, and property not otherwise classified as 7-year property;
and vessels, barges, and fruit-bearing trees as 10-year property.

aSome sole proprietors may claim expenses for multiple businesses, each of
which may fall into a different industry category; only those amounts that
could clearly be associated with a specific industry category are included
in the table.

bSampling error is between (+/-) 20 and (+/-) 50 percent of the value of
the estimate.

cSampling error exceeds (+/-) 50 percent of the value of the estimate.

dTotals may not add to 100 percent due to rounding.

                                  Appendix VI

                   Comments from the Internal Revenue Service

Appendix VII

                     GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contacts	Michael Brostek (202) 512-9110 Charlie W. Daniel (202)
512-9110

Acknowledgments	In addition to those named above, Jennifer Gravelle,
Samuel Scrutchins, Wendy Turenne, and Elwood D. White made key
contributions to this report.

Glossary

Information in this glossary was derived from various IRS publications,
tax forms, and instructions.

Accommodation/food services (Industry category) - includes accommodation,
food services, and drinking places.

Administrative/waste management (Industry category) - includes
administrative services, support services, and waste management and
remediation services.

Agriculture/forestry (Industry category) - includes animal production,
forestry, logging, hunting, trapping, fishing, and support activities for
agriculture and forestry.

Arts/recreation (Industry category) - includes amusement, gambling and
recreation industries; museums, historical sites, and similar
institutions; and performing arts, spectator sports, and related
industries.

Bad debts (Schedule C expense) - accounts receivable that the business
cannot collect.

Car/truck (Schedule C and Schedule F expense) - costs of operating and
maintaining a vehicle used in a business.

Construction (Industry category) - includes land development, construction
of residential and nonresidential buildings, heavy construction, and
specialty trade contractors.

Custom hire (Schedule F expense) - includes machine work where the machine
operator furnished the equipment.

Depletion (Schedule C expense) - allows an owner or operator to account
for the reduction of a natural resource's reserves used up by mining,
quarrying, drilling, or felling.

Depreciation (Schedule C and Schedule F expense) - property acquired by a
business that has a useful life of more than 1 year must have its cost
capitalized and deducted over more than 1 year.

Education services (Industry category) - educational activities including
schools, colleges, and universities.

Glossary

Employee benefit programs (Schedule C and Schedule F expense) -
compensation to employees in the form of a benefit such as accident and
health plans, dependent care assistance, educational assistance, and group
life insurance coverage.

Farming (Industry category) - includes crop production, animal production,
and forestry and logging.

Finance/insurance (Industry category) - includes credit intermediation and
related activities; insurance agents, brokers, and related activities; and
securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments, and
related activities.

Health care/social assistance (Industry category) - includes ambulatory
health care services, hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities,
and social assistance.

Home office (Schedule C expense) - expenses related to the part of home
used exclusively for business.

Information (Industry category) - includes publishing industries,
broadcasting, telecommunications, data processing and information
services, and motion picture and sound recording.

Insurance (Schedule C expense) - premiums paid for insurance plans related
to the business providing coverage for such things as fire, theft, flood,
liability, malpractice, car, worker's compensation, group hospitalization
and medical for employees.

Legal/professional (Schedule C expense) - fees paid to accountants or
lawyers directly related to operating the business.

Manufacturing (Industry category) - includes general manufacturing,
chemical manufacturing, food manufacturing, leather and allied product
manufacturing, and nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing.

Meals/entertainment (Schedule C expense) - business-related entertainment
expenses for entertaining a client, customer, or employee.

Mining (Industry category) - includes coal mining, metal ore mining, oil
and gas extraction, and support activities for mining.

Glossary

Other (Schedule C and Schedule F expense) - any ordinary and necessary
business expenses not deducted elsewhere on the schedules.

Other services (Industry category) - includes personal and laundry
services, and repair and maintenance.

Pension/profit sharing plans (Schedule C and Schedule F expense)

- contributions made to retirement plans.

Professional/technical (Industry category) - includes legal services,
accountants, tax preparation services, architectural, engineering,
computer systems design, specialized design services, and other
professional, scientific, and technical services.

Real estate/leasing (Industry category) - includes real estate and rental
and leasing services.

Religious/civic (Industry category) - includes religious, grant making,
civic, professional, and similar organizations.

Retail trade (Industry category) - includes building material, garden
equipment and supplies dealers; clothing and accessories stores;
electronic and appliance stores; food and beverage stores; furniture and
home furnishing stores; gasoline stations; general merchandise stores;
health and personal care stores; motor vehicle and parts dealers; sporting
goods, hobby, book, and music stores; miscellaneous store retailers; and
nonstore retailers.

Supplies (Schedule C and Schedule F expense) - cost of materials and
supplies actually used and consumed during the tax year.

Transportation/warehousing (Industry category) - includes air
transportation, bus transportation, freight trucking, pipeline
transportation, rail transportation, taxi and limousine service, urban
transit systems, water transportation, support activities for
transportation, couriers and messengers, and warehousing and storage
facilities.

Travel (Schedule C expense) - expenses of traveling away from home for
business reasons.

Wholesale trade (Industry category) - includes wholesalers in durable and
nondurable goods.

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