If you only have self-employment income your earned income is the Net Profit on Schedule C line 31 minus 1/2 the SE tax (the amount on Schedule 1 line 15).
How old are you? There are 2 different things to know about social security. People get them mixed up all the time. Social Security is saying your SS checks may be REDUCED. Not if it's taxable or not.
1. Your actual SS checks
If you are over full retirement age your actual ss checks won't be reduced. Otherwise they will actually reduce your payments if you make too much other income in the prior year. See SS FAQ for working after retirement
https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/whileworking.html
It says…
When we figure out how much to deduct from your benefits, we count only the wages you make from your job or your net profit if you're self-employed. We include bonuses, commissions, and vacation pay. We don't count pensions, annuities, investment income, interest, veterans benefits, or other government or military retirement benefits.
Special Earnings Limit Rule
https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/rule.html
See page 5 for the special first year rule
https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10069.pdf
2. Income Tax (even the first year).
For any age up to 85% of Social Security becomes taxable when ALL your other income plus 1/2 your social security reaches:
Married Filing Jointly: $32,000
Single or head of household: $25,000
Married Filing Separately: 0
Turbo Tax doesn't get involved with how much benefits you can get or how much income you can earn. That isn't part of your tax return. That is just with SS sending you the benefit checks. Your SS benefits can still be taxable.
Social Security doesn't get involved with how much of your SS is taxable. Social Security only is telling you How much can I earn and still get BENEFITS.
