In TurboTax Online:
How do you resolve error message "Schedule C Other Expense text is invalid. I am not doing my return online with turbo tax. Using purchased software. I see one response is to delete the Schedule C. How do you reenter that section of the tax return.
I'm also having this problem. You're saying delete the form but don't I need that?
Thanks to E2P who had a similar problem but with medical expense form instead of schedule c... I tried going back to stepping through the form. When I got to the Other expenses area, I deleted everything and made sure my cursor was at beginning of each line. Then closed that section. I then re-opened that section and re-entered all the info making sure no spaces were there and it finally went through. What a pain in the neck!
I have this problem as well. Stepping through the form didn't work for me. It will not allow me to do anything with the first text line under Olympic and Paralympic Prize Money Smart Worksheet. Just deleting the form is not helpful since I need this form to file. Does anyone else have a work around? Come on Intuit - please fix this problem or provide a work around that works!
It sounds like you have received a 1099-MISC for prize winnings. Here is how to enter your 1099-MISC:
but I don't want to delete the form....everything is correct
This was the MOST ridiculous thing....there has to be a better way to fix this. Having to delete the form and then re-enter all the info was the height of stupid! There has to be a better way to fix this....if there is nothing on the line yet the error message says delete characters....how does one delete something that isn't there? really really dumb.
Turbo Tax has a challenge every year. Lot of other irritating things in the software besides this one thing. Filing the state return is usually a headache because of one of the software's glitches. Guess you get what you pay for and it ain't cheap enough for all the headaches!
Why would you think I had a 1099-MISC for prize winnings? I didn't state that in the problem. I do not. Your response was not appropriate. I didn't enter anything for Other Expenses. I was just trying to enter my business expenses. I finally deleted the form and re-entered everything. It was painful and I am very surprised that this issue has continues for months and Turbo Tax hasn't fixed it. I received a survey after I submitted my taxes and let Turbo Tax know that I won't be a customer next year. Which is a shame since I'm a long standing customer.
Here is is 2021 and TurboTax has not corrected this issue. It appears it has been a problem for at least two prior years and I do not find any fix. I have tried everything short of throwing the software in the trash and starting over with another software company. I did not even have any entries related to this topic but yet I get the error message which will not allow me to submit online.
I found that the problem occurs if there are any leading spaces in the text boxes. Maybe you can open form and on every text box, put your cursor and backspace or try to back space to make sure there are no spaces before the text.
@joevinciguerra Go back through your expenses and make sure there are no empty character fields before the words begin. You can put your cursor on the words and backspace to make sure you get rid of any blank spots.
Wish it was that easy. There's nothing there to delete. Will try to print Sch D and then delete it so I can reenter info directly onto the blank form. Hope that doesn't mess up all the calculations.
Anyone with specific instructions on how to do this, help appreciated,
You would think Intuit would have a special Help # for this issue. Getting to a live person is impossible. Insult to injury, they try to make you pay for Expert
I have done every suggestion in this thread, I have gone as far as to remove ALL spaces so the words just run together, there are NO special characters, NO spaces at the beginning. Do I have to mail this in?
I repeated this method several times and FINALLY it worked, but turbo tax needs to fix this problem NOW!!!
This solution is the pitts when you have to delete all the data already input to eliminate an error that is not there. I have prepared two returns this season in which both have Other Expenses in Schedule C. Have gotten this same error in doing both returns. Pathetic solution, but is the only one I can find in order to be able to have no errors so I can file electronically.
Not being able to get a response from Intuit on how to fix a continual problem is getting to be pathetic!
I ended up mailing my return. Intuit is not interested in fixing this error. I have used Turbo tax for about 15 years but I am done with it. Anyone have a suggestion for a good reliable tax program?
I suspect that within a self-employment activity, an expenditure line was created under Other miscellaneous expenses.
Since the message includes the statement about 'spaces or invalid characters', there could be space bar entries or characters that are not visible but offending, none the less.
Message still there and it's now 2024. Since this has been going on now since 2022 or 2021, I will not waste my time on it anymore. What a simple thing it would be for Intuit to FIX IT.
And here we are with a huge Schedule C miscellaneous... and this error. I've been over and over this There are no blanks. Nope. And what counts as an invalid character in a descriptive field anyway? I think this is because the program offers up the prior year's entries and then, when you start messing with these and deleting them or editing them, something deep under the hood gets confused and will not be appeased. It sucks to have to mail this and then hassle that. I already PAID for efiling when this problem appeared. Sucks.