Turbotax is asking me to fill out line 18 of the Maximum Deferral of Self-Employment Tax Payments section. I don't know what to enter.

[JamesG1]

This may be helpful for an online version of TurboTax.  The self-employment tax deferral may have been selected unintentionally. 

In TurboTax Online Self-Employed, I was able to remove self-employment tax deferral and pass Review.  In some cases, you may need to add temporary income to your self-employment activity to generate a balance due and allow you to access the self-employment tax deferral questions.  Follow these steps.

• Down the left side of the screen, click on Federal.
• Across the top of the screen, click on Deductions  & credits.
• Under Your tax breaks, scroll down to Self-employment tax deferral.
• Click on Edit/Add to the right of Self-employment tax deferral.
• At the screen Do you want more time to pay your self-employment tax?, click Yes.
• At the screen Let's start by getting your eligible income, I have left the dollar amount that was previously entered, others change this amount to $0.
• Click on Continue.
• At the screen Tell us how much you'd like to defer, delete the dollar amount.
• Click Continue.
• Click through Federal Review to make sure than the Review issue has been removed.
• At the screen Some of your self-employment taxes may be eligible, click Skip. 

The self-employment tax deferral is an optional benefit.  It is also a deferral rather than forgiveness, so those amounts will eventually need to be repaid. Half of the deferred amount is due on December 31, 2021, and the other half is due on December 31, 2022.

[anglosmurf]

This is infuriating. Turbotax is caught in a loop and I've tried all the suggestions to defer payment of my self employment taxes, and I can't figure it out. I check "yes" and then it says it needs more information, but never asks for anything. I've seen posts on here about changing line 18 to zero (i can't find any way to manually change any of the forms that have been generated), and have tried deleting forms and the running the review, but nothing. It just says everything looks good and takes me to the payment screen. I would like to take advantage of this deferral, but can't figure out how to do it. It's not telling me i'm not eligible...i just can't get to any screen where it'll ask me how much I want/can defer. HEEELLP!!!

[anglosmurf]

You mention "entering" zero (or an actual amount). I have spent hours trying to figure out how I "enter" anything. I keep answering the questions and it just keeps looping around in circles without ever telling me if I'm eligible or not....then when I run the review, it says everything looks good - no information about deferral of self-employment taxes. What am I missing!?

[DawnC]

You are only eligible to defer the taxes if you have a balance due.   So, if your return is in a refund state, meaning you do not owe income taxes for 2020, you are not eligible to defer the self-employment taxes.    If you do have a balance due, follow these steps to defer the taxes you are eligible to defer.    

1. Sign in to your return and choose Pick up where I left off
2. Click on Federal from the left menu
3. Click on Deductions and Credits from the top menu
4. Scroll down and click on See More Tax Breaks if you don't have the full list
5. Look for and Review the entries under Tax Relief related to Covid-19. 
6. Self-Employment (SE) tax deferral - Click on Edit

@anglosmurf

[anglosmurf]

1. Look for and Review the entries under Tax Relief related to Covid-19. 
2. Self-Employment (SE) tax deferral - Click on Edit

I've done this...dozens of times....there is no option to "edit" my SE...or anything else for that matter. I can click on "revisit" next to "self-employment tax deferral" but that just starts the loop all over again and never asks me for the amount to defer, or even tells me if I'm eligible or not. I click on "yes" and then click on my name (since I'm the one that has SE income), and it takes me to the "We need more info to check if you're eligible" screen....but then nothing happens after that....

[DawnC]

There is not an Edit, Update, or Start button next to Self-Employment tax deferral?   You have to leave the review section to go back to the interview section.   Currently, do you owe federal taxes or are you showing a refund due?   @anglosmurf

[bobbiedobbs]

I tried all of the methods listed in this thread as well and none worked. (I have the Deluxe CD/desktop version)

THIS worked: Forget manipulating the form/worksheet. Go back to the interview - toward the end of the step-by-step and select the topic about whether you want to defer the tax on your self-employment income for the period covered by COVID. Answer YES. (I answered no originally - we actually had a loss, so it was academic, and were stuck in the loop repeatedly documented here). Once I answered yes, the error disappeared.

Note: the error REAPPEARED every time I saved the TT file. I had to repeat the step above right before I transmitted the return. The final review said no errors, bingo off it went.

Hope this works for you. You would think TT could provide a fix, or better instructions.

[anglosmurf]

There's a "revisit" option next to it...but it just asks me the same questions over and over and then says it needs more information...and then loops back around. Yes, I owe federal taxes and would like to defer some of them, but I can't get to any place where it gives me my options.

[bobbiedobbs]

Go to "Tax Relief Related to COVID-19" under "Deductions and Credits" (within the step by step). Click on "Update". Then answer the question "yes". This worked for me. You might also try answering"no". Either way you ultimately pay the same tax; with the "yes" option it spreads it out over I think three years. Most importantly, it clears out the error. At least it did for me. Good luck!

[anglosmurf]

I don't have an option to "update" - only "revisit." And then the loop begins all over again. I'm not getting an error. When I do the review it tells me everything is ok...but i never have the option to see if I'm eligible for the tax deferral, or not. It just says it needs more information and it'll give me my options before I file...but it never does.

[bobbiedobbs]

Hmm...another option might be to go to the form itself (rather than the step-by-step) and work from there. (You may already be doing that). The deferral is on Form 1040, Schedule SE, Part 3, Line 12e, which should take you to the deferral worksheet. This attacks the issue at the point of entry.

[ausavage]

THANK YOU! This is the only thing that worked for me. I had to also remove my self-employment family leave credit to get out of refund zone and back into owing zone to make these changes, because it said I wasn't eligible for the deferral because I was getting a refund, but it was still calculating it! Once I got back up into oweing, I was able to follow these instructions and then add my family leave credit info back in. 

[Debbie444]

Turbo Tax Home and Business will not remove the tax deferral.  I answer NO to the question about wanting to defer the tax, then it tells me that I don't qualify for the deferral anyway.  But it wont remove the $27.00 it wants to defer for me!  I can't seem to get this removed.  It does not  come up in the review either.  Does anyone know how I can manually remove this?  There is some kind of error here in this version of Turbo Tax.

[DaveF1006]

Try this. 

1. Switch to the Forms mode of your program
2. Go to Sch SE
3. Go to line 18 and try removing the amount. 

[bobbiedobbs]

That (forms mode) worked for me, where the interview method (correcting, answering questions differently) failed.  I also tried answering "Yes" for referral (in the interview) so that the program would say I didn't qualify (I had a loss, so there was nothing to defer).

One other thing - after I succeeded in removing the error, it kept returning and I kept having to correct. I finally e-filed without errors by correcting the error and quickly filing.

This whole thing - how TT handles this issue - is ridiculous. Look at all of the posts in this thread and elsewhere. Would be nice for TT to do a fix or offer guidance. My three cents. Bottom line, we have to try various forms of manipulation to get this deferral issue corrected.