Why do I need Form 8995-A?

[NM1]

I was having a problem with this on my daughter's return. She's a 23-year-old grad student, does not own a business or have business/self-employment income, no 1099-MISCs, does not have interest/dividend/investment income of any kind (because she has no investments and her bank account does not pay interest) so no 1099-DIVs/INTs, no carryforwards, etc. etc. Absolutely nothing on the 8995 was applicable, period. All the fields TT insisted on populating were 0.  Yet every time I told TT to delete the form, it was immediately re-created, and was being included among the forms needed for filing her federal return despite all those 0s .

Eventually I tracked it down to some "QBI worksheet" that TT was referring to, which had no entries at all AFAICT. When I told TT to delete that worksheet, the bogus 8995 disappeared as well. This seems like a bug to me. If the worksheet is empty, the form should not even be generated, let alone included for filing.

[LB641]

Have the same issue. Many are asking why TT is generating this form. If we delete the form, TT adds it back. Is this a form that the IRS insists on having with our taxes? If so, why. If not, why is TT adding it, and adding it back when deleted. I have zeros, so not sure why the form is there. I too found that where the zeros have to be deleted from the worksheets, then delete the form, and then it might stay deleted. TT seems fairly insistent on including this form. Does the IRS expect it? Even with a zero, the form generates.

[KrisD15]

Form 8995-A calculates your Qualified Business Income Deduction. 

If you report any business income, including dividends, the form is needed. 

IRS link to Form 8995-A

[NM1]

> If you report any business income, including dividends, the form is needed. 

But if you *don't* report any business income, *not even* dividends, the form is not needed and should not be generated. That's not what is happening. The form is being generated by TT and included with the documents *to be filed*, even when there is absolutely nothing to report on it. This is a bug.

[VictoriaD75]

You will have QBI if you have REIT Dividends reported in Box 5 of a 1099-DIV or on Section 199a on a Schedule K-1. The Form 8995 may be generating from one of these sources.

[NM1]

I appreciate your response. But as I've said, you cannot have REIT dividends if you have no investments at all. You cannot have other QBI if you have no connection of any sort with any business: no 1099-DIV, no 199A, no schedule K-1, no schedule C, no 1099-PATR, no PTP income or loss - nothing, nothing, nothing. I repeat: *none* of the items that are to be reported on the 8995-A exist for this return, which means the 8995-A is not needed and therefore *should not* be generated. And yet it is. It has nothing but zeroes on it. The QBI worksheet that TT uses to generate the 8995-A has nothing but zeroes on it. And still TT insists on generating the all-zeroes 8995-A and including it with the forms to be filed with the IRS. If you delete the form, TT just re-creates it, again, full of zeroes. This is wrong.

I understand that there was a change in how REIT income is reported for 2019 that has a lot of people surprised and confused. This, however, is a bug in TurboTax. Thank you.

[DavidS127]

Thank you @NM1.

It would be helpful to have a TurboTax ".tax2019" file that is experiencing this issue.  You can send us a “diagnostic” file that has your “numbers” but not your personal information.  If you would like to do this, here are the instructions:

For TurboTax Online, click the dropdown arrow next to Tax Tools on the left menu panel, then click Tools under that.  On the Tools Center pop-up, select Share my file with Agent.  When you confirm the request, you will get a box with a token number.   Reply with the token number and I’ll be able to open a TurboTax tax return with your numbers but not your personal information.  That may help diagnose the issue.

For TurboTax Download/CD, on your menu bar at the very top, click “Online” and then “Send Tax File to Agent”.  When you click to send, you will get a pop-up with the token number.  Reply with the token number and I’ll be able to open a TurboTax tax return with your numbers but not your personal information.

[bergerer]

@VictoriaD75 that was the reason. I found the income from REITs in the 1099-DIV.

[bufbandit]

It is now 4/6.  When will this form be updated?  I would love to file my taxes

[DaveF1006]

I checked in my software and the form is available. You might require one if you have rental property or if you received a K1. You may wish to contact phone support so they can view your screen to see why this is occurring.   Please select this link for information to contact phone support.  In the meantime, if you are using Turbo Tax software instead of the online version, you may try this manual update.

If you're having trouble updating your TurboTax 2019 for Windows Individual software using the "Check for Updates" method, you can get the latest federal program update here:

1. Close TurboTax and all other programs except this browser window.

1. Click here to download the 184 MB update.

1. Save the update file to your Windows desktop.
2. Double-click the update file w_perrelsuperpatch... on your desktop to install the manual update.

[NM1]

Is there a way to tell whether the superpatch file contains anything that might not be getting applied properly to the local copy of TT2019 by the conventional in-app updates? Is there any harm in attempting to install it even if it turns out there isn't? Thank you.

Hmmm . . . or might it include, say, release notes <cough>?

[KarenJ2]

Manually Update TurboTax for Windows Software

Please see the above TurboTax Help article.  You will be fine.

[AKBH]

Thank you so much! Others had mentioned K-1s and self-employment income, but this is the only response which mentioned Box 5 on 1099Div. Since the amount that TT was putting onto the 8995A is not on K-1 and there is zero SE income of any kind, I was getting frustrated. Box 5 of 1099DIV explained it! Hurray!

[JamesLynn]

Form 8995 means a business. Turbotax automatically used this form. Why?  What I see is that I got a $4413.00 addition to my standard deduction, Line 10 on the 1040, for an additional tax of $2428.00 on line 15, self employment tax.  That's not a deal i want to make.

[SusanY1]

If you have income from self-employment, work as an independent contractor, or other income that is paid to you on Form 1099-MISC then for tax purposes you have a "business".  As such, your business income is subject to the self-employment tax (which you see on Line 15) but in certain instances you are also entitled to the relatively new Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction that you see on Line 10.  

For income paid to you in Box 7 (nonemployee compensation) of Form 1099-MISC, there is generally no way around the self-employment tax on the net profit. 

Do be sure that you have entered all of the data necessary to deduct expenses related to the income (in the business income section of TurboTax) which reduces the net profit and, therefore, the self-employment tax.  

@JamesLynn