topic Since he is not a dependent, he will get his full $12K st... in Education

My son received 1099 MISC Box 3 amount for room & board costs at graduate seminary. Where do I put this amount and is it taxable?

taxdad4semson — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 03:31:27 GMT

Yes, it's taxable. Where do you put it is complicated. Is...

Hal_Al — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 03:31:29 GMT

Yes, it's taxable. Where do you put it is complicated. Is he your dependent? How much is the amount? Does he have other income; how much and what source?

12.7K is the amount. He is not a dependent, has limited...

taxdad4semson — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 03:31:29 GMT

12.7K is the amount. He is not a dependent, has limited other earned income of 4K - thanks

Since he is not a dependent, he will get his full $12K st...

Hal_Al — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 03:31:31 GMT

Since he is not a dependent, he will get his full $12K standard deduction, so it's not critical where it gets entered.

The IRS considers anything in box 7 of 1099-MISC to be self employment income. TurboTax (TT) aggressively steers you in that direction, even when the amount is in box 3.

That said, the key to getting TT to treat it as other income is to follow these steps:

Enter the 1099-Misc

On the next screen Describe what the payment was for

On the next screen select "none of these apply"

On the next screen select "No it didn't involve work like my main job"

On the next screen select "I got it in 2018" ONLY (Lying to TT to get it to do what you need does not constitute lying to the IRS)

On the next screen select No, it didn't involve intent to earn money

TT will put the amount on line 21 of form 1040 (Schedule 1) as other income