How to complete line 18 Part III Sch SE-T form 2210?

[JamesG1]

Are you referring to IRS Form SE Self-Employment Tax or IRS Form 2210 Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Individuals?

I think that you are referring to IRS Form SE Self-Employment Tax.  Please clarify.

IRS Form SE Self-Employment Tax  Part III allows self-employed individuals to compute a maximum amount of self-employment tax payments that can be deferred. 

Line 18 requires taxpayers choosing this deferral to make a reasonable computation of their self-employment income made from March 27, 2020, through December 31, 2020. 

IRS Form SE Instructions for Line 18 allow you to use any reasonable method to calculate the amount:

Use any reasonable method to divide the net profit or (loss) you reported on line 3 between (a) January 1, 2020, through March 26, 2020, and (b) March 27, 2020, through December 31, 2020. A reasonable method will accurately reflect the time when income was earned or accrued and deductible expenses were paid or incurred, depending on your method of accounting. In most cases, a proportional division of the amount reported on line 3 based upon the number of days in each period will be considered reasonable.

Self-employed taxpayers are allowed to pay 50% of Social Security tax on net earnings from self-employment for the period March 27, 2020 through December 31, 2020.  The deferred amount will be paid 50% in 2021, and the rest in 2022.

[JohnF4]

I am not able to put any value into line 18b on Form SE.  error check is telling me I need to put in a value.

is there an update that will allow me to input a value?

[Cynthiad66]

It seems that you do not wan to defer SE Tax.  If so there is process that you must complete:

This is a question because of initially qualifying to defer a portion of your self-employment tax, before all the details were entered into the return. Once a refund was established, the deferral was no longer an option.

If you return to the section directly, you may not see the screens necessary to adjust this since you no longer qualify for the option.

The easiest and fastest solution is to enter nothing--leave the response blank.

But, if you are still experiencing unexpected results, then temporarily trigger a balance due by adding income long enough to decline the SE tax deferral option, then remove the extra income.

To do this in TurboTax, follow these steps:

Enter a temporary amount as income in the self-employment section that will result in you not having a refund.

1. From the left menu, select Federal.
2. From the Income & Expenses, scroll to Self-employment income & expenses and Edit/Add.
3. At Your 2020 work summary, select Edit.
4. Under INCOME, select Add income for this work.
5. Add Other self-employed income, includes 1099-K, cash, and checks and Continue.
6. At Type of income, enter Temp income to remove deferral and enter a large amount, such as $100,000 and Continue.

Decline to defer any self-employment tax.

1. From the left menu, click on Federal.
2. Click the second tab from the left, Deductions & Credits.
3. Scroll down to Tax Relief related to Covid-19 and Revisit.
4. Select Self-employment tax deferral and select Revisit.
5. Answer Yes at the next screen to get back to Let's start by getting your eligible income.

1. Enter 280/366ths of your income to reflect the income from March 27-December 31, 2021. 
   1. This amount should be the same as the correct amount on Line 18 of Sch SE.

There is more to this solution.  Please see the solution by @KathrynG3 https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/743920