Thanks for the information about not having to enter the stimulus check as income anywhere. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.
As for Live Help, can you steer me to the exact URL where I find that "Live Tax Help" tab? I've been clicking on everything I can find that looks like it will lead me to chat support and haven't found anything. I found something leading me to something where I'd have to pay $90 for support as a self-employed person. I'm not wanting full support in handling all my taxes. I just want support that will answer some questions about how the software is not working as expected this year.
For example, I'm unable to access my State Taxes section. I click Continue on the entry page for the State Taxes section, then I see my state listed, but when I click the Start button, it just sits there and doesn't take me further. My cursor spins for awhile, but then it just stays on that same page. Now I just tried it again and this time it gave me a fatal error. I don't think I should have to pay $90 to get that support, so I must be looking in the wrong place. I'd be fine with chat or phone support for this. There is much that seems "off" with this year's version of the program to me.
Another issue that is different for me that has me very confused and concerned is I entered everything as I always do, but in the section where it checks for errors, it said I failed to enter an amount in line 18 of my Schedule SE form. That asked me to enter the amount of my income that comes from March 27, 2020 through December 31, 2020. I've never had to enter that before when doing my taxes to my recollection. I figured out the amount and entered it, and that proceeded to reduce my tax bill considerably. Now I'm leery that something isn't right here because my tax bill is considerably lower than any other year. That's not a bad thing if it is accurate, but if something is done incorrectly, that worries me greatly.
I'm also having problems with the underpayment penalty bit. I'm entering the date I intend to file my return, it calculates the amount I'll have to pay as a penalty, but then when I go to the review section to check for errors, it comes up as an error that I haven't checked the box telling the IRS to calculate my penalty and bill me for it. I've never done it that way before. I always put in the date I'm going to file and it calculates the penalty and adds it to the final amount of my return. That's the way I want to do it but Turbo Tax won't let me do it that way this year for reasons unknown.
Any assistance you can provide in steering me to the right place to get these issues addressed or in addressing them yourself will be much appreciated.
