What is max deferral line 18 for self employment

[c010903]

I am NOT self employed so I don't even know how I got here and why I have to fill in line 18. If I have to, shouldI I put in a high number or a low one.

[c010903]

No help. That iw what the Google search says and if that meant anything to me, I wouldn't be still askiing.

[akirk85]

I'm pretty sure I finally went into forms and deleted it manually.

[akirk85]

I appreciate your effort to explain this process; I hope TurboTax realizes that there are many arcane processes like this that can't be figured out on one's own, with rather defeats the purpose of the software. I was asking about this weeks ago and only just got a notification that there were answers--too late to help. I don't even remember exactly how I solved this.

[akirk85]

I think there were--partly the Congress's fault for continually changing things at the last minute. However, it was very frustrating not to be able to skip a question. This had me hung up for a long time, too, especially since it seemed to come out of the blue and I had no idea what it was even referring to.

[JamesG1]

@c010903

If the software is asking you to enter or change a value on line 18 of IRS Form 1040 Schedule SE, is there or was there self-employment income in the tax return at some point?  If there is no self-employment income in the tax return, are you able to delete the form using these steps: 

• Down the left side of the screen, click on Tax Tools.
• Then click on Tools.
• Then in the center of the page, click on Delete a Form.
• Choose the form to be delete and click Delete to the right of the form.

If there is self-employment income in the tax return, are you able to access the self-employment tax deferral questions at: 

• TurboTax Desktop Home and Business at Personal / Deductions & Credits / Tax relief related to COVID-19 / Self-employment tax deferral?
• TurboTax Online Self-employed at Federal / Deductions & Credits / Your tax breaks / Self-employed 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.

[Trishk]

I am still stuck on this I ended up putting 0 on line 18 and than the review went away not sure if I did this correctly or not but don’t know else what to do.

[Trishk]

I put 0 as well will that mess up my taxes after I put 0 it took the review off and let me continue processing my federal income. I hope I didn’t mess it up

[Trishk]

@HolaChico  I also put zero on 18 I didnt know what else to do but after i did that it let me finish up my federal and it took the 1 thing I needed review off so I’m hoping that is correct 

[c010903]

Thanks to everyone who replied to this question. I hope you see my reply although most of you, having already completed your tax forms, have gone away and think of this and the whole tax thing a bad nightmare..

For this particuar question, there is no answer.  People either put in a zero or deleted the form. Again,  the question seems to be that is you own shares of an LP the IRS is trying to make you an active participant in the business . They even ask what the company's accounting methods are.

Somebody suggested that this was caused by last minute Congressional changes. Possible.

So, I expect if I am not of the IRS political persuation,  I stand to be audited.  Since it's asking how much I want to defer, zero (0), seems to be a good answer, don't defer anything. Deleting the form seems to negate whatever lilne 19 has in it.

[CatinaT1]

To get past this screen so you can file your taxes, you need to update Schedule SE-T. 

  

The process: 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: 

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. 

[DKinSB]

Here's the simple solution I got from reading Chico's response, followed by others. 

If you're getting the Federal Review error that wants you to enter something in Line 18 of the Sch SE-S form, AND you don't want to defer SE tax payments to some later time -- you just want to pay all SE taxes now and get by this unnecessary error that TT is reporting .....

Just type 0 in Line18 (don't leave it blank) and run the Federal Review again -- error is gone and you pay all your SE taxes now. 

You don't have to go back and redo any sections again or try to trick the TT system.  This is a software bug that TT should fix.  It seems that if this is blank, TT thinks you want to defer some portion of your SE taxes.  When originally asked by TT in the Sched C section, I said I did NOT want to defer, but later after I was out of Sched C section, I did go back and change some of my 1099-NEC income values which may have triggered the problem for me since I got out of the linear order of filling out my return (but TT should be able to handle this).

If you DO want to defer SE taxes, I have no idea what to do.

[KathrynG3]

The steps outlined are not meant to all be done. But, they are meant to be tried in order. 

First, try leaving the cell blank. 

If that does not resolve the error, try entering 0.

Only if that does not resolve the error, then proceed through the other options one at a time. 

If the taxpayer does wish to defer a portion of the self-employment taxes due, then enter the fraction of earnings that were made from March 27 through December 31, 2020. 50% of the tax calculated can be deferred.

However, these filers would not have an issue unless they were initially eligible for a self-employment tax deferral, but as the rest of the details were entered, became ineligible.

@DKinSB

[fastcat99]

Having same glitch as of 5/17/21.  Stuck and can't file.

[ahernandez137]

this helped, thanks!