I don't want the Qualified Business Income Deduction (8995), but TurboTax won't allow me to proceed.

[orjazzmic]

Hi there,

I have $8 of REIT 1099-DIV income. TurboTax wants to give me $2 back for the QBI deduction. The form won't be released until 2/20 (the date has been pushed back twice). The system won't let me remove the QBI Summary, instead forcing me to wait until that form is released.

The Qualified Business Income Deduction (QBI ) is just that—a deduction, and is therefore not required. I've talked to two different TurboTax support people and they couldn't figure out how to bypass it. I assume this is a bug, can anyone confirm?

[Bsch4477]

The QBI is picked up from Box 5 of your 1099-DIV. Leave that box empty and you won’t get the QBI. 

[Anonymous]

leave the REIT box blank - the amount is already included in dividends (box 1a) so you will be taxed on it.  

[PNeyhart]

I am having the same problem.

[JamesG1]

The Qualified Business Income Deduction (QBID) will be generated by the entry of the REIT 1099-DIV income and cannot be overridden.  However, if you exclude the income, the Qualified Business Income Deduction will be removed.

The Qualified Business Income Deduction can be generated from one of two components.

• The QBI component can result from a sole proprietorship, partnership, S corporation, trust or estate.  The first component would likely be reported on Schedule C, Schedule E, Schedule F or a K-1.

• The REIT / PTP component can be generated from qualified real estate investment trust (REIT) dividends or qualified publicly traded partnership (PTP) income.  The second component could be reported on 1099-DIV or a K-1.

See this TurboTax Help.

[tersigni9927]

This is ridiculous. Why does TT force someone paying for their software to take a deduction, which is an elective choice by definition?

It is a bug and it needs to be fixed or this is my last year using TT.  No excuse.

And the advice to not include a matching value from an IRS-reported 1099-DIV is not smart. It should just ask, like it does for any other deduction. Highly unsatisfactory.

[JamesG1]

IRS Form 8995 computes the Qualified Business Income Deduction and may reduce your tax burden by reporting a deduction on line 13 of the Federal 1040 tax return.

The first component of the deduction would likely be reported on Schedule C, Schedule E, Schedule F, a K-1, from a sole proprietorship, partnership, S corporation, trust or estate.

The REIT / PTP component can be generated from qualified real estate investment trust (REIT) dividends or qualified publicly traded partnership (PTP) income.  This component would be reported on 1099-DIV or a K-1.

If you can identify the source of the Qualified Business Income, you may be able to delete and re-enter the income so as to not qualify for the deduction.

See also this IRS Publication.

@tersigni9927