Software glitch? Self-employed health insurance premium tax credit smart worksheet has a negative number...

[smallholder]

Had my taxes prepped and ready to e-file with no errors two weeks ago. Opened turbotax today to double-check the numbers and the review turns up the following error: "1040/1040SR Wks: SE Health Insurance the amount of the self-employed health insurance deduction cannot be less than zero." On the forms view, I see that line 16 for the self-employed health insurance deduction is "-2." I've seen someone else reporting exactly the same problem and amount in another discussion today (that one seemed out of place, which is why I'm starting a  new topic), so I can only assume that this is a calculation glitch. I've double-checked my numbers, they're all correct, and I see no way around this problem (I can change the number in that field, for example).

[smallholder]

That last line should read "can't change the number", not "can".

[DavidDragon]

I have the same problem. In my case the negative number given next to Self-employed health insurance is -120. I bought the software cd disc package from Office Max which works for both Windows and Mac. I have a Macbook. It is a glitch, and not sure what to do.

[AnnetteB6]

If you would be willing to share a diagnostic copy of your tax file, it could be helpful to examine the situation in more detail.  

To do so, follow the instructions below and post the token number along with which version of TurboTax you are using in a follow-up thread.

Use these steps if you are using TurboTax Online:

• Sign in to your account and be sure you are in your tax return.
• Select Tax Tools in the menu to the left.
• Select Tools.
• Select Share my file with agent.
• A pop-up message will appear, select OK to send the sanitized diagnostic copy to us.
• Post the token number here. 

If you are using a CD/downloaded version of TurboTax, use these steps:

• Select Online at the top of the screen
• Select Send Tax File to Agent.
• Click OK.
• Post the token number here.

@smallholder

@DavidDragon

[DavidDragon]

Further to my last note. above....

I called the Turbo Tax help number  [phone number removed]

Then describe your issue briefly

The automated system then tries to get you to email or go on-line

Just say "representative"

I think an alternative phone is then asked for - I put the same number in that I was calling from (cell phone)

I got to speak to someone after a few minutes - she was very helpful.

It took quite awhile to figure out why the negative number was showing for Self Employment Health Insurance Deduction.

I had my self employment home based business running for 3 months before the end of March.

The remaining 9 months of 2020 I received unemployment.

The fix was:

In the EasyStep view where you enter all your numbers - go to the third overhead tab "Personal"

Then select the second overhead sub-tab "Deductions & Credits"

Scroll down to "Medical"

Select "Affordable Health Care Act"

When asked 'Which business was associated with this policy" - select your business name

In this screen, I had previously put January to March for the first and last month the business operated

Changing this to January to December solved the negative number previously shown for Self Employment Health Insurance Deduction

This was all figured out the TTax person - super helpful

[DavidDragon]

Thank you, all is taken care of now - see my most recent post

[smallholder]

I contacted turbotax customer support and was able to resolve the problem with their assistance. Turns out to have been a dollar rounding issue related to my 1095-A.

[DavidDragon]

Great to hear you got resolution. Sounds like the negative number issue happened in a diffrent way to my situation.

For anyone else who may have a similar issues to mine. I'll copy and paste the follow up note from the TTax person who helped me:

I confirmed that the deductible amount of self-employed health insurance premium, reported on schedule 1, line 16, is your total insurance premium paid, minus the premium tax credit.  The premium tax credit includes both the advanced portion and the additional credit amount shown on you tax return, schedule 3, line 8.  It appears to be calculating correctly in TurboTax, when you indicate that it applied to your business the full year. 

When the heath insurance input screen indicated that the policy applied to the business January through March only, the software prorated your premiums, then subtracted the full amount of the premium tax credit shown on schedule 3, line 8.  That resulted in a negative number.  Changing the ending month from March to December will trigger TurboTax to apply the full year of insurance (less the premium credit) to the business as a positive amount on schedule 1 and clear your error message.

[sr222]

please help me. i have talked to 4 people. i cannot fix this problem. Line 16 on my Self employment health insurance deduction says it's a negative number. help. I just want to file my taxes. I have no idea what's wrong. 

[DavidDragon]

Hi sr222,

You likely have seen my previous posts in this message string.

See the one further up, from Expert Anette B6 Turbo tax employee. You can share a copy of your TTax file with them and they can go through it. The steps are there in her message. Or contact her from the live link on her name.

This is how I got my issues resolved, but did the file share when I was talking to the Turbo Tax representative. She was awesome. The info given at the foot of her follow up email note is:

Kimberly, Certified Public Accountant (CPA), for 15 years.

To have a further look on your own, some comments to share:

If you were self-employed for just part of 2020 - and then were unemployed for a period of time - could be where the issue lies in how you did your data entry for your health insurance entries. This was the case with me. If you had Marketplace health insurance, go back through the steps of how you entered the info. 

I'll copy over from one of previous posts how this happened with me, in giving the negative number, see below:

I had my self employment home based business running for 3 months before the end of March.

The remaining 9 months of 2020 I received unemployment.

The fix was:

In the EasyStep view where you enter all your numbers - go to the third overhead tab "Personal"

Then select the second overhead sub-tab "Deductions & Credits"

Scroll down to "Medical"

Select "Affordable Health Care Act"

When asked 'Which business was associated with this policy" - select your business name

In this screen. The problem was that I had previously put January to March for the first and last month the business operated.

Changing this to January to December solved the negative number previously shown for Self Employment Health Insurance Deduction

This was all figured out the TTax person - super helpful

[modmagpie]

Having the same issue. Have spoken with three customer service reps, one who was trying hard to help for 45 minutes until the call was disconnected, without any resolution. Have deleted and re-entered my healthcare info several times. It's clearly not a typo or an error that I can fix. Can I just file anyway? I shared my file with an agent (token number 854358) - no idea if that will resolve anything. 

[DavidDragon]

I would say that if you did the file share with the TTax agent there is a good chance that they should be able to sort it out. My negative number showing was -$120 which was quite a bit. If yours is quite a bit less, could probably submit it as is if are wanting to make the 17th deadline.. Could also correct it later as well, and resubmit to the IRS

[modmagpie]

@DavidDragon Thank you so much for weighing in on this, and for providing such detailed information for a possible solution in earlier posts! If I hadn't found this post and your reply I would have been even more frustrated than I am. I was using the online version of TurboTax where you can't directly edit any of the auto-calculated amounts, so I downloaded the desktop version and was able to fix the form manually. Not the most confidence-inspiring solution, but the amount of the error was very small (-2), so I'm just going to roll with it. Maybe this will teach me not to file my taxes at the last minute, but I doubt it, haha!

[parsley]

It looks like a dollar rounding issue for me as well.  Like others, my return shows a negative number (-3) for self-employed health insurance deduction.

I have double-checked and confirmed that the fix previously explained (change the period of time for self-employed business to January-December) is in place in my software.  Yep.  Still I show -3.  I'm tempted to monkey around with the dollars & cents in reporting the figures on my 1095-A in order to eliminate the discrepancy, though that strikes me as a potentially bad idea.

How did customer support direct you to resolve the rounding error?

[parsley]

For those looking for a solution to this problem, try the one explained by @racelawn this past Thursday in the Turbotax thread called "Federal return rejected:  Self-Employed Health Insurance Deduction on Schedule 1" (page 7 of the comments in that thread).

Quoting racelawn's solution from that thread:

-----------

In the Step by Step Questions - go to Deductions & Credits; I'll choose what I work on; Medical; Affordable Care Act (form 1095-A); Update; Edit; complete form; Continue; Let us know if these situations apply to you; uncheck I'm self-employed and bought a Marketplace plan; continue

This action removes the error and the negative number on the return. It simply eliminates the rounding error that is occurring.

------------

This worked for me - I finally just filed.