In 2019, I exercised options which were granted to me by a company for which I'm not an employee; I get a 1099-MISC from them each year. It's my understanding that these are nonqualified options, and the difference between what I paid and their estimated value appeared on my 1099-MISC in Box 3 (Other Income). It wasn't clear from the instructions for entering a Box 3 value into TurboTax whether I should treat this as self employment income or not (like the value I usually get shown in Box 7 of the same 1099-MISC). Do I have to treat this "fake" income (since I didn't get a dime in actual cash!) as self employment income, and (presumably) pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on it? Or do I enter it in some other way? (I think I saw in one of the TurboTax help boxes I tried opening that I could delete this separate 1099-MISC entry and enter it elsewhere, but, again, it wasn't clear whether I should or not.) Thanks!
