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.
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.
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?
Yes, if you already paid your taxes, it doesn't make sense to use the option. You can put 0 in the line.
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)?
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.
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?
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.
@Helper4u You can't defer anything associated with your unemployment benefits, as they are not subject to self-employment tax.
these give more detail on what the question is asking:
https://www.thetaxinstitute.com/insights/tax-in-the-news/setax-deferral-cares-qotw/
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.
I was using TurboTax Online Self-Employed.
Thank you