Can I delete the 2020 Self Employed Tax Deferral from my return? How? I chose that I didn’t want it however it’s still giving me a $784 credit.

[LenaH]

Yes. You can delete your election to defer your self-employment taxes from your tax return. However, the credit you may be seeing is half of your self-employment tax that is deducted from your return. TurboTax will automatically deduct half of the self-employment tax. You can confirm this by going to Preview my 1040. On Line 14, Deductible part of self-employment tax, in Part II, you will see half of your self-employment tax is deducted. 

If you need help previewing your 1040, please follow these steps in TurboTax:

1. Click on Tax Tools in the left column.
2. Click on Tools.
3. Click on View Tax Summary.
4. Click on Preview my 1040 under 2020 Taxes in the left hand column. 

If the $784 is not a deduction of half of your self-employment tax, please make sure to follow these steps in TurboTax to change your election:

1. Open your return.
2. Click Federal on the left hand side. 
3. Click Deductions and Credits on the top of the page.
4. On the page Tax Breaks, scroll down until you see Tax relief related to Covid-19.
5. Click Revisit next to Self-employment tax deferral. 
6. Answer no to the question Do you want more time to pay self-employment taxes? 

[DePro]

Doesn't work.

[KathrynG3]

It is normal to get 50% of the self-employment tax as a credit. This is not the same as the self-employment tax deferral.

If you are getting an error that is preventing you from filing, then you need to reset TurboTax and answer no when asked whether you want to defer any self-employment tax. 

To get past this screen so you can file your taxes, delete Sch SE-T, take a quick run through the self-employment to recalculate Sch SE-T, and then turn off the Max Deferral.

To do this in TurboTax, follow these steps:

First, delete Sch SE-T that applies by following these steps:

1. From the left menu, select Tax Tools.
2. Select Tools.
3. Scroll to Delete a Form.
4. Scroll to Sch SE-T, select Delete, confirm the deletion.

Next, to replace Sch SE-T, return to the self-employment income & expenses interview in the Income & Expenses section and select Edit/Add.

1. Select Edit for your business.
2. Scroll down to Done so that the Sch SE is recalculated. 
3. Finish any other questions in the self-employment interview and click Continue. 

Lastly, revisit the section for the Self-employment tax deferral entry:

1. Return to the Deductions & Credits section.
2. Scroll to Tax relief related to COVID-19 and Show More.
3. Select Self-employment tax deferral and select Revisit.
4. Answer Yes at the next screen to get back to Let's start by getting your eligible income.
   1. If you do not want to defer any self-employment income, "Enter your eligible self-employment income" should be blank.
      1. Select Continue.
   2. At Tell us how much you'd like to defer, "Enter amount" should be blank.
      1. Select Continue.
5. Scroll down and select Wrap up Tax Breaks and Continue.
6. Run through the Federal Review again.

[DePro]

Wow, I bought Turbotax so didn't have to do all of this.

[g_edgar]

This helped me.

The key thing was that "how much you would like to defer" should be blank, not 0.

In my case, at one point TurboTax told me that, because of changes I had made, I was no longer eligible for the deferral, and it would fix it for me.  Well, it didn't fix it: that entry was 0.  Which counted as an error.

[gloriah5200]

If you leave the answer blank instead of 0, then TT will default to the maximum amount of se tax to be deferred.

Otherwise, if you want to enter a certain amount, then enter that amount into the answer line.

Entering a 0 will cause none of the se tax to be deferred.

[MichelleN]

When you go into delete the form in TurboTax Online, look for form SE-S and that will delete the credit.

[JamesG1]

I have not tried deleting form SE-S as you recommend.  I will try that approach.

In TurboTax Online Self-Employed, I was able to enter a self-employment tax deferral and pass Review.  Then I was able to remove self-employment tax deferral and pass Review.

Follow these steps. 

• Down the left side of the screen, click on Federal.
• Across the top of the screen, click on Deductions  & credits.
• Under Your tax breaks, scroll down to Self-employment tax deferral.
• Click on Edit/Add to the right of Self-employment tax deferral.
• At the screen Do you want more time to pay your self-employment tax?, click Yes.
• At the screen Let's start by getting your eligible income, I have left the dollar amount that was previously entered, others change this amount to $0.
• Click on Continue.
• At the screen Tell us how much you'd like to defer, change the dollar amount to $0.
• Click Continue.
• Click through Federal Review to make sure than the Review issue has been removed.
• At the screen Some of your self-employment taxes may be eligible, click Skip.

[stevenjr74]

I believe this is an error that turbotax needs to address.. i have tried to delete the credit... pushed that i do not qualify.. but it keeps appearing

[npierson7]

This particular error has been fixed. 0 in the line 18 should work now to avoid the loop.

[CristalG]

I chose to not ask for the deferral but at the end the review would not let me leave this part blank so I entered 0 on line 18 of the SE Form I just hope this doesn't cause my return to be Audit 😑

[MichelleN]

Using 0 in the box is totally acceptable.  You won't get an audit.  It just simply states that you chose to defer $0 of your self employment tax.

[JamesG1]

@CristalG

Entering $0 in the tax return should not provoke an IRS audit.  The self-employment tax deferral is an optional benefit. 

If you have employees, you can defer the 6.2% employer portion of Social Security tax for March 27, 2020 through December 31, 2020. Self-employed taxpayers can also postpone the payment of 50% of the Social Security portion of their self-employment tax for the same period.

This is a deferral rather than forgiveness, so those amounts will eventually need to be repaid. Half of the deferred amount is due on December 31, 2021, and the other half is due on December 31, 2022.

See also this TurboTax Help.

[DJP62]

GREAT ANSWER for the 2nd part of this response!! Somehow Turbo Tax never showed me the screen asking if I wanted to defer SE tax - so it assumed I did & kept giving me an ERROR. However, when I went to the step-by-step view IN THE SOFTWARE & clicked PERSONAL/DEDUCTIONS & CREDITS/TAX RELIEF RELATED TO COVID-19/Self-employment tax deferral. I clicked UPDATE & there was the elusive question asking me if I wanted to defer. I said NO & my error disappeared. YEA. Thanks so much for this answer.