Opus 17
Level 15
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Deductions & credits

Box 3 income will usually only be taxed as “other income” and not be taxed as self-employment income.  The difference is that with other income, you can’t deduct expenses; with self-employment income, you need a schedule C and you pay an extra 15% self-employment tax.

 

For box 3 income to end up as self-employment in TurboTax, you must have answered the testing questions in such a way as to make the program think this was work income. The program asks questions like,  did you intend to earn a profit?  Is this work similar to your normal work? Will you perform this work in the future?

 

you need to answer “no“ to these testing questions. The course was not taken to earn a profit, and a bonus for taking a training class is not the same as her usual profession of caring for children.  If you delete the 1099, and then re-enter it, and answer all the testing questions as no, that should result in the income being listed as other income and not self-employment income.

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