Tax Year Prior to 2020: I'm getting an error using TurboTax online. It is stating I have "miscellaneous taxable income (or loss)" (form 1099-MISC), but I do not. It's trying to force an upgrade.

So, what version are you using? You may responded to a question that is forcing you to add a 1099 Misc. You may want start all over.

Please see this Help article for instructions on how to clear and start over in TurboTax.

We are using the free online version (web version).  We attempted to start over and it gives the error message:

You may have a partial form or entry in Turbo Tax. If Form 1099-MISC, is not needed, you will have to delete it. 

1. Click on Tax Tools toward the bottom left corner.
2. Select Tools.
3. Click on Delete a form.
4. Scroll down the list and delete Form 1099-MISC worksheet, Schedule C, Schedule C-EZ and Schedule SE.
5. You probably won't have all four, but search for, and delete the ones that appear on your list.
6. To delete a form, click Delete on the right and then Confirm the delete. You can only delete one form at a time.
7. If you have a state return, you may need to delete these forms under your state as well. 

When all these forms are deleted, click Continue my return. Click on Review on the left and see if this clears up the error. 

Thanks for nothing. Because you basically are unwilling to give decent customer service, I'll have to mail my returns this year. Probably get my refund 4-5 weeks from now. I'm thoroughly disgusted

I had the same issue. I think Turbotax seems to be very tricky on this. It made the deletion of the right forms very inconvenient, and I was forced to upgrade last year, although I needed not to.

This year I figured it out. It was mainly because I accidentally click "Less Common Income" and peeked into one of the options. There it was prompted that I must upgrade in order to fill that form. I said "don't upgrade". I thought I did nothing there so it should be fine. In fact, Turbotax already created an empty form for you. This is definitely an unwanted feature! After I completed other forms and tried to file my tax return, the only option is to upgrade because I have "miscellaneous taxable income". Note that such a name cannot be found when you click the less common income. So it is difficult to figure out which form is the devil. 

What I did then is click "Tax Tool" on the main list, and then select "Delete form". There was no form which had 1099 or Miscellaneous Income as part of its name.  This added to the difficulty of finding the right form to delete. I think I tried "other income worksheet/form", then the mandatory upgrade disappeared. Turbotax could have made this process much easier.