@AmeliesUncle wrote:
The IRS does not want the NAICS code. They want the Principal Business Code, which is in the Instructions. Although those codes are based on NAICS, the are more broad. Find and use the code in the Instructions that is closest (looking up the NAICS code can give you the first three digits, which will help you narrow down which IRS code to use).
User has not mentioned what Schedule he/she is referring to--F (Farming) or C (self-employed business), so it's not clear if he/she is using the correct Schedule. The use of the term "business code" as opposed to "agricultural activity code" suggests user may be using Schedule C. The IRS says if his principal source of income is from farming activities, he should be using Schedule F, not C.
If user is preparing Schedule F, then as I mentioned above, the possible agricultural activity codes on a Schedule F (farming) are more general and more obvious. The few possible choices for Schedule F can be seen on the back of the Schedule F (page 2, part IV) at the link I provided above. When preparing a TurboTax return, in the Schedule F interview these agricultural activity codes are limited and chosen from a dropdown list in both Online TurboTax and the desktop software. The code for Schedule F has to be chosen from that dropdown list of general codes. So there is no way to manually enter a different code for Schedule F other than those few in the dropdown list anyway.
Since this user is asking about entering a "business code," it makes me wonder as to which Schedule he is preparing, and if it's the correct one. If user is preparing Schedule F, he should have seen that limited dropdown list of general agricultural codes and is limited to those. If he is not seeing the limited dropdown list of agricultural codes and is given a field to enter all 6 digits, perhaps he/she is instead referring to a Schedule C business for some reason.
@rowancd
