Updated October 18, 2026. Quick answer: Line 10 is the total commissions and fees you paid for the year, and line 11 is the total cost of contract labor. Both come from your payment records. The instructions flag Form 1099-NEC reporting for each, and say amounts deducted elsewhere on your return are not repeated here.
Picking the Schedule C business code for your work (2025 chart): Schedule C code for IT consultants, Schedule C code for construction trades and Schedule C code for insurance agents.
Picking the Schedule C business code for your work (2025 chart): Schedule C code for real estate agents.
Line 10: commissions and fees
The instruction is short: “Enter the total commissions and fees for the tax year.” “Do not include commissions or fees that are capitalized or deducted elsewhere on your return.” The form caption is “Commissions and fees”.
The instructions add a special rule for sales of property: “Generally, commissions and other fees paid to facilitate the sale of property must be capitalized.” “However, if you are a dealer in property, enter on line 10 the commissions and fees you paid to facilitate the sale of that property.” They define the term: “A dealer in property is a person who regularly sells property in the ordinary course of their trade or business.”
Line 11: contract labor
The instructions say to “Enter the total cost of contract labor for the tax year.” “Contract labor includes payments to persons you do not treat as employees (for example, independent contractors) for services performed for your trade or business.”
Two exclusions apply. First, “Do not include contract labor deducted elsewhere on your return, such as contract labor includible on line 17, 21, 26, or 37.” Those lines are legal and professional services, repairs, wages and Part III labor, covered on the Schedule C lines 17 to 19, Schedule C lines 20 to 22, Schedule C lines 25 and 26 and Schedule C Part III pages. Second, “Also, do not include salaries and wages paid to your employees; instead, see Line 26, later.”
Where the number comes from, and the Form 1099-NEC notes
Both lines come from your own payment records for the year. Each paragraph in the instructions points to information reporting. For commissions and fees it says you “must file Form 1099-NEC to report certain commissions and fees of $600 or more during the year.” For contract labor it says you “must file Form 1099-NEC to report contract labor payments of $600 or more during the year.” Both paragraphs refer you to the Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC for details.
Schedule C also asks about this reporting directly. Line I of the form reads “Did you make any payments in 2025 that would require you to file Form(s) 1099?” Filing dates are on the Form 1099-NEC filing deadline page, and the form itself is on the Form 1099-NEC box 1 page.
Where it goes next
Both lines are part of the total on line 28, whose caption is “Total expenses before expenses for business use of home. Add lines 8 through 27b”. The earlier expense lines are on the Schedule C lines 8 and 9 page, and the total is on the Schedule C lines 27a to 29 page.
This line is one step in a chain that ends at line 31. For a profit, the schedule says “If a profit, enter on both Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 3, and on Schedule SE, line 2.” Schedule SE is the form that figures self-employment tax; it is introduced on the Schedule SE (Form 1040) page. The last step is covered on the Schedule C lines 31 and 32 page, and the return the schedule attaches to is explained on the Form 1040 page.
Edition and line numbers
This page reads the 2025 Schedule C (Form 1040) and its 2025 instructions, the current files irs.gov served on 2026-10-18 (byte-identical to the archived copies). They are the files for the tax year 2025 return, filed in 2026. The schedule says “Attach to Form 1040, 1040-SR, 1040-SS, 1040-NR, or 1041”. Check the tax year printed on the schedule you are filling in and use the line numbers on that year’s schedule, because a different year’s schedule can number or word its lines differently.
Common mistakes
- Deducting the same contractor payment twice. The instructions say “Do not include contract labor deducted elsewhere on your return”.
- Putting employee pay on line 11. The instructions say “do not include salaries and wages paid to your employees”.
- Missing the Form 1099-NEC filing duty. The instructions say you “must file Form 1099-NEC to report contract labor payments of $600 or more during the year.”
Related: Schedule C (Form 1040), Form 1099-NEC filing deadline, Form 1099-NEC box 1, and self-employment tax.
Sources
- Instructions for Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business (2025): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sc.pdf
- Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business (2025): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sc.pdf
Read from the IRS documents linked above on October 18, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer, the account provider or the IRS is the right place to confirm anything consequential.