Dave, I searched the Community to see if I could find any more information on this. I found a couple posts with a somewhat similar issue where the issuer of the 1099-MISC should have entered the amount to Box 1, as the income should have been reported under "Rents".
In order to clarify, I received this 1099-MISC under a rebate program in CA from SoCal Water$mart. https://socalwatersmart.com/en/residential/rebates/available-rebates/turf-replacement-program/
It is a Turf Replacement program offered to promote water use reduction and sustainability. Upon successful implementation of the program requirements, they issue a rebate based on square footage. So, obviously this is NOT rent. Hence the dilemma that the income on form 1099-MISC should not be put in Box 1, but the TT program will not allow that (see my earlier post).
