What is the "Maximum Deferral of Self-Employment Tax Payments" am I being asked to enter for line 18?

[Anonymous]

Not sure what to enter here

[AnnetteB6]

This question is associated with the option to defer paying some of your self-employment tax due to Covid.  

If you do not want to defer any of the self-employment tax, then enter '0' for line 18.  

If you do wish to defer paying the self-employment tax, then line 18 is asking for the portion of your Schedule C and/or Schedule F profit that is attributed to March 27, 2020 through December 31, 2020.  

[Anonymous]

I already paid the taxes in 2020 on the amount I made for self employment ($2000). I am not sure what "defer" means in this case.

[Anonymous]

Hello, I have already paid my federal and state taxes for the amount I received for self-employment. So should I go back and write 0? 

[npierson7]

Yes, if you already paid your taxes, it doesn't make sense to use the option. You can put 0 in the line.   

[Anonymous]

Hi Pierson, thank you!

I cannot find that form again in turbo tax to enter 0 (zero); I ended up entering $2000 which is the amount I made for self-employment. Do you know where it is? 

IRS has my payments, so, if they check, I guess they will find the payments no matter what so I guess it's ok if I have not entered 0 (zero)? 

[MaryM428]

IRS Deferral of Self Employment Taxes

Look at Section 21:   Self-employed individuals may defer the payment of 50 percent of the Social Security tax imposed under section 1401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code on net earnings from self-employment income for the period beginning on March 27, 2020 and ending December 31, 2020.

[Helper4u]

What if you are self-employed and did not work from March 20- December 20th? I received unemployment.  Do I do half of the 12.7% social security tax off of what I received in unemployment benefits?

[JustMe8]

Unfortunately, it seems that TurboTax does not let you go back and edit or review the field once you've entered it and hit next. I hit next and my amount owed dramatically reduced. Alarmed, I went back to edit the field and could not find a way to.

Every year there's something like this with TurboTax. I wish they had a section where you could go back and review these "reviews". Maybe there is and I just don't know.

[ThomasM125]

@Helper4u You can't defer anything associated with your unemployment benefits, as they are not subject to self-employment tax.

[urbandisciplep]

these give more detail on what the question is asking:

https://www.thetaxinstitute.com/insights/tax-in-the-news/setax-deferral-cares-qotw/

https://blog.taxact.com/self-employed-tax-deferral/

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/deferral-of-employment-tax-deposits-and-payments-through-december-31-20...

[EH16]

Hello,

***Edited and removing my issue since the following thread answered it.***

Basically, entering nothing on Line 18 worked for me. I was reporting a business loss and it wouldn't let me enter 0 (zero) as it said this was too large and it wouldn't let me enter a negative number.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/retirement/discussion/in-my-sch-se-t-i-have-line-18-set-to-0-and-i...

I was using TurboTax Online Self-Employed.

Thank you