@cvreal wrote:
The 1099-MISC form has only Box 6: Medical and Health care payments filled out.
The 1099-MISC form is not filled out correctly. Box 6 is for payments to a physician or other health care provider. Payment for participating in a research study is supposed to be reported in box 3. The IRS instructions for filling out Form 1099-MISC say the following, on page 5.
"Other items required to be reported in box 3 include the following. . . .
3. A payment or series of payments made to individuals for participating in a medical research study or studies."
You should ask whoever sent you the 1099-MISC to issue a corrected 1099-MISC with the income in box 3 and zero in box 6, and to file the corrected form with the IRS. You can point out to them what the 1099-MISC instructions say.
If they refuse to correct it, don't enter the 1099-MISC in your tax return. Instead, you can follow the steps below to report the income as "other income" with the description "Medical research study." Hopefully that will head off any IRS inquiry about it. But you might get an IRS notice anyway saying that you did not report the 1099-MISC income. If so, you will have to reply to the IRS notice explaining what the payment was for, that the 1099-MISC was incorrect, and where you reported the income on your tax return.
Here's how to enter "other income" in TurboTax so that it will be reported on Schedule 1 line 8z with a description that you enter.
- In the Search box in TurboTax type "lawsuit settlement" (without the quotes), then click the link that says "Jump to lawsuit settlement." I know that's not what the payment is for, but it's the only search term I could find that gets you to the right place.
- The first screen asks, "Any Other Taxable Income?" Click Yes.
- On the next screen, "Other Taxable Income," enter the description "Medical research study" and enter the amount. Click Continue.
- On the next screen click Done.
- You will get a couple more screens with unrelated questions. If they don't apply to you, just answer No and click Continue.
