What does it mean to say "Sch SE-T Max deferral line 18 must be entered"?

[MatthewMrHope]

thank you so much for trying to help.  I deleted the form and selected no I don't want to defer.  It tells me that I'm not able to and I have the same warning that my deferral (which is 0) is too large.  I have tried putting in income and then removing it.  It doesn't work.  When I remove the income it comes back.  I guess I will wait a bit for the developers to fix the program and then try to use another software so I can file my taxes

[JamesG1]

The self-employment tax deferral may have been selected unintentionally.  It also may have been selected when your tax return qualified for the deferral.

In some cases, you may need to add temporary income to your self-employment activity to generate a balance due and allow you to access the self-employment tax deferral questions. 

In TurboTax Online Self-Employed, 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, delete the dollar amount or change this amount to $0.
• Click on Continue.
• At the screen Tell us how much you'd like to defer, delete the dollar amount or change this 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. 
• Remove the temporary income and Review.

The self-employment tax deferral is an optional benefit.  It is also 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.

[MatthewMrHope]

Thanks for the help.  I deleted the se-t and it won't let me put in 0 and then say no deferral.  I have the downloaded software so maybe it's different.  

[drextbone]

Will the program be updated to account for this bug when a business has a loss and therefore unable to defer negative taxes?

I have tried every work around listed on this thread and no luck.  I also agree with many earlier statements that a "work around" is horrible business practice.  The first notice of this issue in this thread is 1 1/2 months old at this point.  Plenty of time to fix the program and add it to one of the updates.  Using the 2020 Desktop Home and Business addition.

[Anonymous]

KathrynG3- Intuit Tax Expert gave a response that worked.  You must follow each step.

Here is it:  

To get past this screen so you can file your taxes, delete Sch SE-T, take a quick run-through of 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:

• From the left menu, select Tax Tools.
• Select Tools.
• Scroll to Delete a Form.
• 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.

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

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

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

[DawnC]

Assuming you do NOT want to defer taxes or you are not eligible to defer taxes - for the Line 18 error, enter a 0.   If you get Line 11 too large error, delete that 0 and leave the field empty/blank.   As long as you are not wanting to defer, using 0's or empty blank fields (whatever one makes the program happy) will allow you to be able to e-file.  Some fields will take 0 and others need to be blank but it depends on what line and what Schedule the SE tax is being generated from.    @MatthewMrHope  @drextbone

[Ken687]

I had a net (and gross) loss last year and TT enters a zero but then says that it is invalid. Very frustrating.

[SamS1]

Try deleting the Sch SE-T and Schedule SE Adjustments Worksheet.  You should not have SE tax if you have a loss on your Sch C business return.   While in your return in TurboTax:

• In the left hand column select "Tax Tools"
• Select "Tools"
• Select "Delete a form"
• Review for Sch SE-T
• Delete selected form
• Review for Schedule SE Adjustments worksheet
• Delete selected form then "Back"
• Run your Federal review again.

If you work from home, you can gain deductibility of home office expenses but will be at the state level return. If your state allows miscellaneous itemized deductions, you would possibly be able to deduct home office expenses. With the changes from the 2018 Tax Cut and Jobs  Act, employee business expenses were eliminated as a deduction on your Federal return. If you live in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Minnesota, New York, or Pennsylvania, there is a deduction for unreimbursed employee business expenses. Or, if you live in a state the still allows itemized deductions even if you took the standard deduction on you Federal return. Click here for more tips on working from home.

[krathke]

Hi Erivas, thank you for posting this, can I ask how you solved it? The posts following this , if they are supposed to be "answers", read like gobbledeegook to me. I just spent 2 whole days working on my taxes, to be confronted with this completely confusing error message, makes me glaze over...

[JamesG1]

Are you unable to access the self-employment tax deferral questions at Federal / Deductions and credits / Self-employment tax deferral?

In some cases, you may need to add temporary income to your self-employment activity to generate a balance due and allow you to access the self-employment tax deferral questions. 

In TurboTax Online Self-Employed, 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, delete the dollar amount or change this amount to $0.
• Click on Continue.
• At the screen Tell us how much you'd like to defer, delete the dollar amount or change this 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. 
• Remove the temporary income and Review.

The self-employment tax deferral is an optional benefit.  It is also 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.

[erivas]

Hi, sadly I couldn’t solve the issue, I waited a week for a solution but nothing. I ended up using H&R Block, no issues there, it worked as it should so I filed my taxes there and I already got my return. Sorry I cannot be of more help, but I pretty much deleted all the info from Turbo Tax and used the other software.

[krathke]

Thank you so much for answering! I found a bit of a workaround (for this time). I’m glad that at least you finally found peace of mind, even if it meant giving up on TurboTax! 🙂

[sr1185]

I finally went to "Forms"  Sch SE-T, scrolled down to line 18 that was highlighted, enter "0", because I did not want to Deferred payments.  And that cleared it!! No more error!

[Mike789]

Interestingly... When you select the field for line 18, there is a "plus sign" that appears next to the form. It opens a new window (Supporting details). That window has a checkbox "Check this box to NOT print this supporting details". By clicking this box, error goes away.

[typat]

This works for my Federal taxes, but when I go to Illinois, I still stay in the infinite loop that tells me to go back to Federal taxes and set up the deferral.