form SE line 12

No, there has not been a change in the rules around self-employment tax this year.

I am assuming you are referring to a Form 1065 partnership K-1?

If you have a positive number in box 14 of your K-1, that should flow to Schedule SE,

First I suggest checking your copy of the K-1 form. If you have a positive number there, but no SE tax, you should check the K-1 input to make sure it was entered correctly. 

If the number is there and was entered correctly, please respond back to this thread and we can explore further. 

i have checked everything you suggested -- no luck

--pls follow up, thanks

Jim

have checked everything -- no luck

pls suggest a plan

thanks

Jim

Let's review the steps to the entry and if you are a general partner, your income will be subject to self employment tax, as it should be.

I also am assuming you are entering a Form 1065-K1 for your partnership share of income.  Some questions are very important to determine whether the pass through income is subject to self employment tax.  

1. You must check that you are a 'General Partner'
2. Describe the Partnership - None of these apply
3. Type of Activity - Business-Box 1
4. Did you Participate? - Yes
5. Box 1 = Income
6. Select Box 14
7. Code = A-Net Earnings (Loss) From Self Employment / Amount should equal box 1 or the amount from your K1
8. All of my investment in this activity is at risk - Check box if only you have investment in the business and/or loans you are responsible to repay.  In other words your investment what is at risk, no money from parents or spouse that you are not liable for.

The self employment tax will be calculated and displayed at the end of the 1065-K1 entry. See image below.

i do not see such a box on the 1065 form

i found the entry on the detailed form -- it shows $ on line 14 A and C

its on my form but not my wife's

and although its on my form it's not flowing through to my 1040

You need to go back through the entries you made when you entered your K-1 into the TurboTax system.  If you have positive numbers in box 14 then you should have self-employment tax. 

If you can't figure out where the error is you are probably better off having someone walk through the return with you to look at your entries so I recommend getting live expert help.

Here is a link to finding a TurboTax expert.

However, that requires upgrading your product which may be an expense you don't want.  In that case you can call an expert and ask questions over the phone.

Here is a link to the TurboTax Phone Number

thanks you from your response --id like to go back to one of the fundamental questions listed before

1) in the business version I have partner self emp income in box 14A and 14C, my wife has none?

I answered a question not asked last year -- were the partners married, I ck yes -- could have affected the box 14 for my wife?

thnakz

Jim

to your questions all were entered correctly -- I believe the basic problem flows from the K1

--I have SE income and my wife shows none, even though she is a 50% partner

RobertB4444 has also picked up the thread --but if you have ideas pls help

Jim

Please clarify the following info:

1. What type of business provided the Schedules K-1 for you and your wife?
2. Who prepared Form 1065 for this business?
3. Are you both general members/partners in that business?

In general, if you are both general partners who actively participate in the partnership and have paid self-employment taxes in the past, both Sch K-1's should reflect GP status and report income on Line 14. Entering these details for your personal tax return (married, filing jointly) should result in SE earnings that may be subject to SE tax.

You might check with whomever prepared Form 1065 to be sure both Schedules K-1 are correct.

I prepared the K1 -- Business Turbo Tax

we have a consulting business (15 yrs at this point) 50/50% with my wife

have used TT 2018,19 -- now 2020

does it matter that one is the general and the other a regular partner??  the GP shows SE income the other no income

--the first problem I encountered was the partner share info did NOT transfer over from 2019

--three TT experts tried to fix it and all failed -- finally told me to reenter manually

Now the K1's are wrong -- any connection?

As you seem to be aware of, If you and your spouse are both partners, each of you must complete and file your own Schedule SE (Form 1040), Self-Employment Tax, to report your partnership net earnings (loss) from self-employment.  You are both general partners (not necessarily the managing partner).  If you indicate your wife is a limited partner, the software will not treat her share of income as self-employment income and will not generate a Schedule SE.  In the business software you should indicate that your wife is a general partner so it will properly flow through to your personal return.

Jackpot -- this was very helpful

I knew it was an entry I made -- will try this tomorrow and let you know

thanks

Ok -- now that the K1 correctly shows the SE income we come to problem #2 -- the 1040

the SE income now shows the correct income BUT when it shows up on form SE T is only lists non K1 income on the SE S shows the K1 income.  On line 7 and 9 the max SE is shown but line 6 non K1 income is so small line 10-11 are very small.  was there a change in tax rate that could explain this?  we are 75 and 66 years old, does that matter?   We made more money in 2020 than 2019 and yet our SE tax is only 10% of last year??

No, there was no tax rate change that would explain this, and your ages don’t matter as far as paying Self-Employment tax goes.

Is there a fairly large amount in line 8a, Total social security wages and tips (total of boxes 3 and 7 on Form(s) W-2) and railroad retirement (tier 1) compensation?  As that amount approaches the $142,800 limitation you refer to, you’ll owe less in SE taxes.

Did you actually have W-2 wages that were that high?

W2 wages very low <$10,000 but K1 income >$200,000

Do both of your partnership k-1’s include self-employment earnings in box 14?

Did last year’s k-1’s include self-employment earnings and this year’s does not?

I sounds like Form SE needs the self-employment earnings to compute a self-employment tax.

yes both K1 have SE earnings

yes last year the SE flowed through and this year NOT

Agree with your conclusion -- 

so do i manually enter the SE income?  any idea why its not bring in this income? 

@OldCarGuy  Give me the details on your K1 and I will test it to see if there are anomalies. Let me know what type of K1, whether it be a partnership or S-Corp and whether you are a general partner or limited partner (If this was issued from a partnership).

details

K1 comes from Turbo tax business -- it's our company

Income shown on the K1 part -- Gen and H boxes ckd

form J shows beginning % share but does not show any ending share?

form L does not show any distributions 

Part 3 -- partner share: L1 shows income >$100,000 for each of us (my wife is the other partner)

L1 sec A shows the income and B indicates its passthrough 

L19 shows cash distributions ($95,000 each)  

the mystery is why is our SS tax only $1000 -- last year it was $10,000

It would be helpful to have a TurboTax ".tax2021" file that is experiencing this issue.

You can send us a “diagnostic” file that has your “numbers” but not your personal information.  If you would like to do this, here are the instructions: 

At the top menu in the black line at the top of the page go to Online. 

1. From the menu, select Send Tax File to Agent. 
2. You will see a message explaining what the diagnostic copy is.  Click Send and then you will get a Token number. 
3. Reply to this thread with your Token number. This will allow us to open a copy of your return without seeing any personal information.  

We will then be able to see exactly what you are seeing and we can determine what exactly is going on in your return and provide you with a resolution.

token # 924988

thanks