The IRS considers
anything in box 7
of 1099-MISC to be self employment income. TurboTax (TT) aggressively steers
you in that direction. If you try reporting box 7 income as anything else, you
chances of hearing from the IRS are very high. If your wife has done this type of work two years in a row, even for short periods, and it's in her regular line of work; it is probably self employment.
That said, the key to
getting TT to treat it as other income is to follow these steps:
Enter the 1099-Misc
On the next screen
Describe what the payment was for
On the next screen
select "none of these apply"
On the next screen
select "No it didn't involve work like my main job"
On the next screen
select "I got it in 2017" ONLY
On the next screen
select No, it didn't involve intent to earn money
TT will put the amount
on line 21 of form 1040 as other income
