Roth IRA Contribution Limit Worksheet and Earned Income Worksheet do not show my SE income

[Pedernales]

Example:

Online Premium version.

W2 wage income $2500.   Net self-employment income from Schedule C $2700.  Total earned income should be about $5K.  On the Roth IRA Contribution Limit Worksheet, Line 7, only the wage income shows up there as earned income.  The figure should be almost twice that, but no SE income is included.  In the past, it always summed the two kinds of income.  I can't figure out why it's doing that.  It's like it's not flowing from Schedule C.  But it limits my Roth contribution to about half of what it should be.

On the Earned Income Worksheet, the same thing is seen.  All lines for SE income are blank (1a, 5, and 15).

The SE income does flow to QBI deduction normally.

Anyone familiar with what I'm seeing, or something I'm not doing?

[dmertz]

"Net self-employment income from Schedule C $2700."

What matters is Net Profit on  Schedule C line 31.  From that you must subtract the deductible portion of self-employment taxes.  For your compensation to be more than your W-2 wages, line 31 must be greater than zero.

Also, if you have a Schedule F, or another Schedule C, you must sum the net profit from all of them.

If you are married filing jointly, make sure that the Schedule C is marked as applying to the correct spouse.

[Pedernales]

 Thanks.  Yeah, I guess I worded that wrong by typing too quickly.  By "net" I was meaning after all business expenses were deducted from SE income.  In other words, I really meant the profit on the Sched C.   The figure on Sch C, Line 31 is approx. $2700.

Single filer.  There's only 1 business, no Sch F.   Shouldn't Sch C, Line 31 (minus 1/2 SE tax) flow to those Earned Income and Roth Contrib Limit Worksheets?   It's like nothing has flowed from Schedule C in regards to earned income..  The Line 31 did flow to the Schedule SE to figure the SE tax.   

It's perplexing.   I'm going to have to play around with it more to see if I can tell why it's not flowing.  It's worked in previous years, but I was using the desktop version previously.  Otherwise, if I can't figure it out I'll just cut my Roth Contribution in half this year.

[dmertz]

You must also subtract any self-employed retirement deduction that is present  on Schedule 1 line 16.  However, consuming all net profit this way would require making an employee elective deferral to a SIMPLE IRA or an individual 401(k).  If you were experimenting with self-employed retirement contributions but will make no such contributions, make sure to delete the Keogh, SEP and SIMPLE Contribution Worksheet, if present.

[Pedernales]

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@dmertz wrote:

You must also subtract any self-employed retirement deduction that is present  on Schedule 1 line 16.  However, consuming all net profit this way would require making an employee elective deferral to a SIMPLE IRA or an individual 401(k).  If you were experimenting with self-employed retirement contributions but will make no such contributions, make sure to delete the Keogh, SEP and SIMPLE Contribution Worksheet, if present.

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It's an extremely simple little Schedule C from a 1099-NEC with only small amount of supplies deducted from gross SE income.   And there is no simple, SEP, etc. and no figure on Schedule 1, Line 16.  I would think a lot of people have a little of both types of income and that it would normally count both types of income as earned income on the 2 worksheets.   I'll doodle around with the online program and report back if I figure it out.  Makes me want to go back to desktop program. :).  Thanks again.

[Pedernales · Accepted solution]

Well, the good news is I figured out why my Sched C profit was not being counted as earned income on the Earned Income Worksheet and why it wasn't being figured as earned income for my Roth contribution limit. It was due to an issue with SSN. Once that was fixed, the Sched C profit flowed normally to both the Earned Income Worksheet and the Roth Contribution Limit Worksheet. So that's good news since I can now make my usual Roth contribution as in previous years.   

[dmertz]

That's one thing I never think about, but you are right, there are certain areas where TurboTax will change behavior if the individual's SSN has not been entered.  Even when just creating test tax returns, I always make sure to put in a Social Security Number, often just a dummy number.  Thanks for the update.