I appear to have encountered a bug in 2021 Turbotax Business. It appears that in the Deductions area the software is subtracting the value entered for "Payments to independent contractors" from "Common business expenses". I previously last used the software in mid June without this issue. At first I thought that my .tax2021 file had somehow become corrupted, so I took the following steps:
1) Created a new return, imported information from 2020's return, updated business and partner information (it's a multi-member LLC), entered income information, started to enter deduction information. After I entered the "Payments to independent contractors" value, the "Common business expenses" value immediately became the negative of the "Payments to independent contractors" value.
2) I then uninstalled the software and reinstalled it, rebooted the PC, and started the software. It, of course, insisted on downloading and installing the latest updates. This completed successfully.
3) I then started the software and opened the previous 2021 tax files, the one from mid June and the one from today. They both continued to show this error.
4) I then created a new tax return completely from scratch. I did not import anything. The same error still happened. I have attached a screenshot of the Deductions page. It clearly shows the value for "Payments to independent contractors" with "Update" for its button and the negative value for "Common business expenses" with "Start" for its button.
This subtraction appears to carry through the software to the actual tax forms. When I view Form 1065, Line 20 does not include the "Outside services" value, Lines 21 and 22 are exactly off by this value as well. When I view Other Ded Wks, its Line 22, Outside services, does show the correct value and the Total shown in its Line 35 is correct.
Help! Have I actually encountered a bug or am I missing setting some new option or switch to get the software to include Payments to independent contractors? Without a fix to this issue, the only option I have at this point is to download the forms from the IRS website and manually fill them in. As I am sure you know, this return is due on September 15, so time, as they say, is of the essence. BTW, the PC is running Windows 11 and is up-to-date per updates from Microsoft.
