Double counted hobby income

[adrianv]

My wife sold some items for her hobby and I entered the sale amounts under Misc Income.  Then when I finished Federal taxes, TurboTax Online told me I needed to make some entries relating to this income and it it asked some kind of cryptic questions, but seemed to be asking me to list the income as mine or my wife's, so I entered the amount (again) for my wife.  This actually doubled the hobby income, and now when I see the listing of incomes, Misc Income is showing double the correct amount. 

I went into hobby income and it all looked correct.  I completely deleted the hobby income entry and the Misc Income value dropped to the correct value, but I'm not sure what to do now.   Should I just delete my hobby income and keep the "ghost" value that I can't seem to edit?  Is there some way to edit that?  Why did I get those questions anyways? 

[RaifH]

Did your wife receive a tax form for this income, like a 1099-MISC or 1099-NEC? If not, the best place to enter your wife's income is as Hobby income:

1. Select Start/Revisit in Federal > Wages & Income > Less Common Income > Miscellaneous Income, 1099-A, 1099-C
2. Select Start/Revisit next to Hobby income and expenses
3. Enter your wife's total income here. Please note that expenses entered here will not reduce the hobby income. 

I'm not sure which section you were in that prompted the follow-up questions, but when entered this way, the income should appear on Line 8i of your Schedule 1. You can preview your tax return:

1. Open or continue your return.
2. Select Tax Tools in the left menu (if you don't see this, select the menu icon in the upper-left corner).
3. With the Tax Tools menu open, you can then view your 1040 form: Select Tools. Next, select View Tax Summary in the pop-up, then Preview my 1040 in the left menu
4. Scroll down until you see Line 8i of Schedule 1, Activity not engaged in for profit income. 

[adrianv]

Yes, that is exactly how I entered the hobby income.  But the duplicate income doesn't show up anywhere in TurboTax that I can find.  Those followup questions appeared in the "Federal Review" section after everything was done. 

In TurboTax Online Premier I just get a very terse summary from "View Tax Summary".  Do I have to have finished the taxes and checked out?  I did a search in tax tools, picked "1040" and it said "Lets finish your <state> taxes first". 

[JamesG1]

It sounds like the first entry is reported under:

• Federal / Wages & Income / Your income / Miscellaneous Income.
• Click Edit / Add to the right of Miscellaneous Income.

Under Let's Work on any Miscellaneous Income, review the entries that have Revisit as an option to locate and remove the first income entry.

The preferable reporting is under Hobby income and expenses.  This entry is found on line 8i of Schedule 1 Additional Income and Adjustments to Income.

[adrianv]

In the Miscellaneous Income section, the only entry that says "Revisit" (and the only one I ever visited) was the Hobby Income section.  I have set hobby income to zero and yet at the income list it's still listing a value for Miscellaneous Income. 

[LenaH]

If you are still getting an error, it would be helpful to have a TurboTax ".tax2021" file that is experiencing this issue.

You can send us a “diagnostic” file that has your “numbers” but not your personal information. If you would like to do this, here are the instructions: Go to the black panel on the left side of your program and select Tax Tools. 

1. Then select Tools below Tax Tools. 
2. A window will pop up which says Tools Center.  
3. On this screen, select Share my file with Agent. 
4. You will see a message explaining what the diagnostic copy is. Click okay through this screen and then you will get a Token number. 
5. Reply to this thread with your Token number. This will allow us to open a copy of your return without seeing any personal information.  

We will then be able to see exactly what you are seeing and we can determine what exactly is going on in your return and provide you with a resolution.

@adrianv

[adrianv]

The token numbr is 946336. 

[LenaH · Accepted solution]

The $855 is coming from an entry in Other reportable income.

To revisit the section of the entry, please follow the instructions below:

1. Open your return.
2. Click on Federal on the left-hand side.
3. Click on Income & Expenses at the top of the page.
4. Scroll to the bottom under Less Common Income select Start (or Update) for Miscellaneous Income.
5. Scroll down to the bottom and click Start next to Other reportable income.
6. The $855 will be shown on the next screen.

@adrianv

[adrianv]

That worked.  The "other reportable income" section had never been visited, but had the 855 in it.  I blanked out all the entries in there, entered it correctly as hobby income and all seems well now.