If we got a 2020 refund and IRS website says owed balance of $0, do we still owe deferred self-employment taxes (CARES act) if sched 3 line 12e lists an amount?

[jzent]

Schedule 3 Line 12e lists $36 and TurboTax sent us an email saying we should have paid 1/2 of that by Dec. 31...but IRS website says we don't owe them any money and we got a refund last year.

[SteamTrain]

YES....you need to pay that.

The zero balance on the IRS website only refers to "Income" taxes that may have been due, and do not refer to any SS/Medicare taxes taht were deferred.

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Instructions on paying are also here...read closely on how to make sure they get allocated properly:

How self-employed individuals and household employers repay deferred Social Security tax | Internal ...

[Critter-3]

Ok ... if you deferred any of the SS payments you could NOT have had refund on your tax return  ... so did the IRS reduce your refund by $36 (or $72) ?   If so the deferment was satisfied and no payment request was sent from the IRS and you can ignore the TT warnings.

[jzent]

Weirdly, looking through all the pages of my taxes, it looks like it was added TO the refund, not subtracted from it, so I'm assuming I do need to go pay it. The whole situation isn't very user friendly.

[ThomasM125]

Your self-employment tax was first added to your income tax on line 23 of your form 1040. Then, on line 31 the deferred portion of it was added to your refund, that is where you got credit for it. It was used to reduce your total tax on your tax return, thus increasing your refund, so you do need to pay it back.