Based on your description of the situation, Schedule E would be the appropriate place to report your royalty.
If you had your own business that used the patent to create and sell a product, then Schedule C would be the right place to report it. You would also have other income from selling the products, and expenses from making the products. That may come down the road and if it does, then the royalty would be included on Schedule C.
Use the following steps to report your royalty on Schedule E:
- On the top row of the TurboTax online screen, click on Search (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax locate the search box in the upper right corner)
- This opens a box where you can type in “royalties” and click the magnifying glass (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax, click Find)
- The search results will give you an option to “Jump to royalties”
- Click on the blue “Jump to royalties” link
Answer Yes that you need to report rental or royalty income and then skip the first question or so because they will pertain to rental properties and not royalties. You will come to a screen titled, “Is This a Rental Property or Royalty?” where you can choose Royalty. You will need to enter a short description for the type of royalty and include an address for the royalty. Use your own address or the address of the property generating the royalty (such as when a property is generating a royalty). Continue moving forward until you get to a summary page for the royalty. Here you can select Start or Update beside Royalty Income to enter the income amount.
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