my daughter (18 years old) is filing her own tax since she got a science competition aware of $27k, why the turbo tax classified as unearned income, how to change it

zwzqzs · ‎April 14, 2025

Vanessa A

An award or scholarship is considered unearned income to a point. You cannot change this. TurboTax is handling it properly.

Basically, if she received income that was for services performed like building a house, then that would be reported on a 1099-NEC as self-employment income and subject to SE taxes.

If you entered the income as scholarship income or income not received for services performed, then this would be unearned income.

What is unearned income?

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my daughter (18 years old) is filing her own tax since she got a science competition aware of $27k, why the turbo tax classified as unearned income, how to change it