In a general partnership, my understanding is that a 1065 form must be filed with the IRS each year, and that on each partner's individual returns, they each list this as an income/loss in the K1 section.

My confusion is with whether this income/loss is to be distributed between the partners based on each's share in the partnership. For example, if the company has a profit of $100, and there are two partners, each is responsible for claiming $50 on their personal returns.

When using HR Block's online site, it asks whether the user has any K1's, and has several data points entered, but none of them seem to be in reference to the share each partner has. If each partner uses the full $100 amount, then wouldn't the money be double taxed? Is this just something that HR Block overlooks, or am I misunderstanding how the whole process works?


Profits and losses in a partnership, LLC or S-corp are always reported proportional to the share of ownership. If you have a 30% share in a partnership, you will report 30% of the profit (or loss) of the respective tax year on your personal return.

If you look at Part II, section J of your K-1, it should show your percentage of ownership in the entity. All numbers in Part III should reflect the amount of your share (not the entity's total amounts, which will be on Form 1065 for a partnership):

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  • I didn't realize the K1 forms were different from the 1065 "U.S. Return of Partnership Income" form I was looking at. Thanks for the clarification :) – Dolan Antenucci Mar 5 '12 at 19:48

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