You can ask the county to replace the 1099-NEC with Form 1099-MISC.
Form 1099-NEC was resurrected by the IRS several years ago to explicitly show that the income reported is Non-Employee Compensation and therefore Self-Employment income.
Form 1099-MISC is still available and is used as a "catch-all" for everything else.
From your description, I would say the county should have reported it as "other income" on Form 1099-MISC.
Since you have Form 1099-NEC, there is nothing you can do with the TurboTax program than to report it as Self-employment income which means you will pay FICA tax.
You can elect to report it some other way, but once the 1099-NEC is entered, TurboTax recognizes this as Self-employment because that is what the IRS mandates for Form 1099-NEC. The IRS gets a copy of the 1099-NEC and will look for it to be reported. You may need to send a statement with your return if you report it some other way.
IRS link
**Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post
**Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"
