I am being asked to fix an entry in my schedule E form, line 4, for Royalty Income. But I don't have any. Turbo Tax won't accept that it is 0 and keeps asking to fix.

You can simply remove the form from the program.  Here are the steps:

1.  Sign into your account, select Pick up where you left off

2.  Select Tax Tools, click on the drop down arrow

3.  Select Tools

4.  Under Other helpful links, choose Delete a form

5.  Select Delete next to Schedule e and Continue with My Return

Royalty income are any payments you receive from a patent, a copyright, or some natural resource that you own.  The is the amount someone pays you to use your property after you subtract the expenses you have for the property. If it doesn't apply to you, you do not need to report. 

I am getting the same error but i do have rental income to report.  So i need to file a Schedule E form.  Is there another work around to avoid having to file by mail?

Yes.  You should be able to go to the royalty section of the return and make sure anything that might be there is deleted.  It can be in one of two places, but the following steps should take you there. it's important to continue through the screens so that TurboTax knows there should be nothing there as you step through the screens.

With your return open, search for 1099-MISC and select the Jump to link in the search results.

When you enter your 1099-MISC, enter the income in Box 2 - Royalties. On the following screen, choose the source of your royalty income:

• Investment income from property you own – This includes natural resources extracted from your property by a third party who leases your property, as well as royalties from intellectual property that you didn't create yourself. This gets reported on Schedule E.
• Royalty income from your business, including artist royalties or operating a natural resources business (Schedule C) – This includes income from natural resources that you extract from your property as well as royalty payments from intellectual property you created as an inventor, writer, artist, and so forth. This gets reported on Schedule C.

Once you've selected the proper classification, follow the onscreen instructions.

You can also use the following steps to walk through the royalty income section:

• Select Wages and Income > Scroll to Rental Properties and Royalties (Sch E) > Revisit/ Update >
• Select Edit beside any property that is unnamed or that shows royalties > use the trash can or click delete to remove it.

It's important to clear cache and cookies, as well as browsing history on a regular basis to remove any pieces of information that should be gone.

I double checked my entries and I'm still getting this same error loop.  To be clearer on my situation, I have two rental properties that I have entered 1099MISC information for.  The only income for both is the rent from tenants and there is no royalty income associated with anything I have.  I only put information information put into box 1 and have left box 2 blank for both 1099 entries.  For some reason TurboTax keeps thinking I need to put something into box 2 for royalties but just for one of the properties.  I've deleted and re-entered the information for the 1099 that was causing the error but it is still coming up that I need to fill in the royalties box when I don't have any of that type of income to report.

I am facing the same issue.  Did you find a solution to it?

Thanks!

Delete the 1099 from the program entirely. Then do not tell the program that you have a 1099. Instead, tell the program you were paid in cash. Then enter the amount you were paid. Take note that when you e-file, the fact you received a 1099 is not included anywhere  on your e-filed return.

If you still get the error, then there's another way (a bit drawn out, but successful) to find the error.

I tried clearing and re-entering the info a couple times without luck. I ended up just printing off my return and mailing it in.

Thanks -- I will try the options suggested by Carl and see if it would help!

In the 1099-misc form, I cleared everywhere I entered 0.00 (i.e don't enter anything). After that I am able to finish.

Don't do this. It will mess EVERYTHING up. 

I kept trying to enter 0 in the Royalties field, and I was repeatedly told I still had an error. Try deleting the value altogether when prompted to fix the error, leaving the field blank

YES!!! This solved it for me. As stated, just edit the original schedule E and clear every value that was $0.00 in every field, and that will fix this silly issue.

I ran into an issue with Schedule E in the 2022 Desktop version of the software as well. It said the "Days rented at fair rental value" had to be zero, not 365, because this is a royalty property. On the form that field was red as well as the Rental Income in Section 3, indicating an error with those fields. I double checked all of my inputs and they were correct. I finally found a fix! On Schedule E in form view I changed the property type to something else (which is a number from a drop-down pick), then changed it back. Voilà: the errors went away! I'm guessing forcing the software to recalculate the form is the workaround.

Yes, this is what I had to do: just delete any irrelevant 0's and then it worked.  Turbotax, please fix this silly issue where entering a zero causes error messages. 

I'm encountering the same issue. Have tried everything listed. This is so frustrating!!! no help or support and endless circle for this stupid Rental Royalty from hell. Is this a ploy to get us to pay extra for support?

Please clarify what error you are trying to resolve. What have you entered and where?

This is an old thread that may not have updated information for your situation.

@dsdina 

I do not have any rentals or royalties.  Smart check keeps trying to force me to put a property type on Schedule E.  I have tried to delete the form and it won't let me.  HELP

see my message below.  I do not have royalties or rentals and Smart Check keeps wanting information in the property description field.  I don't have any property that I rent

Have you entered any Forms 1099? If so, you may need to delete your entry under the 1099 topic.

Also consider other sources of income that you've entered other than W-2 wages.

If SmartCheck presents you with a subform to complete, scroll down to see if you recognize the income that's been added to the form.

Several posts on this thread have instructions for removing income and/or forms that may be causing this SmartCheck message.

@TracyD71 

Just got off the phone with an assistant in regard to the same thing, at the very top where it's asking that - delete the 0 and click continue. 

Blank > 0 

Yes, removing the "0" in smartcheck and leaving that blank cleared it for me, thanks!!

I was stuck in the described killer loop trying to e-file and being told to fix the royalty income on my schedule E worksheet. After an hour of different combinations, this one worked: delete the value depicting "0" in the prompt AND in the worksheet/form. Repeated for State and Federal. Problem cleared. Smart check complete. E-file complete.