Affiliated Service Group???

[jaemmons]

I have two dentists who maintain sole-proprietorships within the same office and share the same office employees but split their costs (salaries and benefits) amongst them equally, as if they were "partners." I would like to say that they are affiliated with each other, seeing that they split all office expenses, rent, employees, etc. but because they are taxed as soleprops, is there anything that I am missing that would join these two practices together? In my gut I feel that they both provide services with one another and are acting as a partnership but I would like to have something to go by before I speak to them about it. Also, they have three NHCE's who "split time" for each DMD. In the aggregate they have over 1000 hrs but individually they have a little over 700. This is where I am coming up with the problem, because it sounds a lot like a law practice where each lawyer establishes its own soleprop and "share" the services of one admin asst who works less than 1000 between them. Any insight would be very much appreciated or just point in the right direction for an answer.

thanks