Do we have to enter our stimulus payment check as income? If so, where do we enter that?

[KM77777]

I received the first $1200 stimulus check.  I was thinking I would have to enter that into Turbo Tax somewhere during the process of preparing my return.  But I went through every step and was never asked to enter that $1200 as income anywhere.  It did ask me if I received the stimulus checks at one point.  I said yes to getting the first check and no to getting the second check.  It then applied the $600 credit for me for the second one.  I just wanted to speak to someone to make sure I didn't miss seeing this anywhere.

Also, does TurboTax have a chat support option anywhere?  I'm having multiple problems with this year's version of the program that I've never had before and it would be easier if I could just talk to someone involved in support through a chat feature.

[DMarkM1 · Accepted solution]

The stimulus payments are not income.  Any payments received are not entered as income on the return at all.  The only place to enter the  payments is in the "Federal Review" to reconcile the Recovery Rebate Credit.

You post indicates that you have correctly completed the interview for the stimulus and Recovery Rebate Credit.  Well done!

To get live assistance just click on the "Live Tax Help" tab at the top right of the TurboTax online page.  You will be prompted on how to receive help from a "Live Expert".  

[KM77777]

Thanks for the information about not having to enter the stimulus check as income anywhere.  I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

As for Live Help, can you steer me to the exact URL where I find that "Live Tax Help" tab?  I've been clicking on everything I can find that looks like it will lead me to chat support and haven't found anything.  I found something leading me to something where I'd have to pay $90 for support as a self-employed person.  I'm not wanting full support in handling all my taxes.  I just want support that will answer some questions about how the software is not working as expected this year. 

For example, I'm unable to access my State Taxes section.  I click Continue on the entry page for the State Taxes section, then I see my state listed, but when I click the Start button, it just sits there and doesn't take me further.  My cursor spins for awhile, but then it just stays on that same page.  Now I just tried it again and this time it gave me a fatal error.   I don't think I should have to pay $90 to get that support, so I must be looking in the wrong place.   I'd be fine with chat or phone support for this.  There is much that seems "off" with this year's version of the program to me.

Another issue that is different for me that has me very confused and concerned is I entered everything as I always do, but in the section where it checks for errors, it said I failed to enter an amount in line 18 of my Schedule SE form.  That asked me to enter the amount of my income that comes from March 27, 2020 through December 31, 2020.  I've never had to enter that before when doing my taxes to my recollection.  I figured out the amount and entered it, and that proceeded to reduce my tax bill considerably.  Now I'm leery that something isn't right here because my tax bill is considerably lower than any other year.  That's not a bad thing if it is accurate, but if something is done incorrectly, that worries me greatly.

I'm also having problems with the underpayment penalty bit.  I'm entering the date I intend to file my return, it calculates the amount I'll have to pay as a penalty, but then when I go to the review section to check for errors, it comes up as an error that I haven't checked the box telling the IRS to calculate my penalty and bill me for it.  I've never done it that way before.  I always put in the date I'm going to file and it calculates the penalty and adds it to the final amount of my return.  That's the way I want to do it but Turbo Tax won't let me do it that way this year for reasons unknown. 

Any assistance you can provide in steering me to the right place to get these issues addressed or in addressing them yourself will be much appreciated.

[KM77777]

Disregard my question in the previous reply about my State Taxes section.  After the fatal error I restarted Turbo Tax and this time it worked.  It failed to work at least six times prior to this over a 2-3 week period.  This was the first time it gave a fatal error.  But upon restart, it magically worked, so all is OK here now.

[tonitime]

When I start the federal review it never takes me to The Recovery Rebate to enter the stimulus checks.  Where can I manually enter my payments?

[NCperson]

@tonitime - it will ask for the stimulus payments actually received when you get to the 'federal review' tab (at the end!)

[VolvoGirl]

When you go through the federal review tab it will ask how much you got if any.  Enter a 0 in the box if you didn't get one.  Or to enter your stimulus payment in TurboTax, type "stimulus" (without the quotes) in the Search box, then click the link that says "Jump to stimulus."

After you have entered your tax information and are ready for the Federal Review, it will be the first question.

If you are trying to trigger it, you can go to Other Situations, answer any questions and click Done. The next automatic selection is Federal Review and it will ask about payments received.

If you didn't get one or both of the Stimulus payments or qualify for more it will be the Recovery rebate credit on 1040 line 30.  It either adds to your refund or reduced a tax due.

[ptosney]

Where in the income section does it ask to enter stimulus money received

[VolvoGirl]

To get to the stimulus questions in TurboTax at any time, you can search for stimulus or recovery rebate credit then hit ENTER and there should be a Jump to link

If you are trying to trigger it,

Click on Other Tax Situations at top

Click on Let's get started

Answer some questions then Continue

Then click on Let's keep going

Next screen is for the Third Stimulus, if you qualify

If you did not get prompted to enter your stimulus information, that means you either:

1. Filed as a dependent being claimed on another tax return, or 
2. have an AGI too high to claim the recovery rebate