Question

How do I check the box on Line A of Schedule SE?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
April 16, 2023
1 reply
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I am a minister who filed Form 4361 but had more than $400 of other net earnings from self-employment. TurboTax did not ask me about that, and the PDF of the tax return has that box unchecked.

TurboTax Deluxe Online

J

JohnW152

The option to enter this information will typically generate if you enter information specific to the clergy during the interview. You might want to walk back through the self-employment interview to get the appropriate field to generate.

To go back through your self-employment income in TurboTax Online:

If you don’t see 2022 TAXES in the left pane, select the dropdown to the right of Income & Expenses on the Hi, let’s keep working on your taxes! page and then select Let’s get started, Pick up where you left off, or Review/Edit.
- Otherwise, in the left pane, select Wages & Income
Scroll down and select the Show more dropdown to the right of Self-Employment
Select Edit, Edit/Add or Revisit to the right of Self-employment income and expenses
On the Tell us the type of self-employment work you do screen, make sure you have Minister or Clergy entered in the occupation field, then select Continue
Proceed through the next several screens, until you come to one called Let's get your clergy or religious sect info
Select the circle to the left of I'm exempt from self-employment tax. I've filed form 4361, then select Continue

This should result in the box on Line A being checked.

O

olsonlo-mlc-welsAuthor

This will be good information for next year. If I use TurboTax again. Unfortunately, I ended up asking for a call from customer service and got it. The first call lasted 37 mins 23 secs. The second, after the first call was cut off, went a mind-numbing 1 hr 34 mins 41 secs. The first representative eventually transferred me to a person she said was a CPA, but during my conversation with her the line went dead. I called back, and the second rep chatted with a specialist while I was on the phone with her ( and declined to let me speak with that person directly because of how busy they were). After trying to find a path such as you described and coming up empty, the advice that they gave me -- and reaffirmed when I pressed them on it -- was that the IRS understood I had filed Form 4361, both because of their records and because of my W-2 Form that reflects that filing, and they advised me to simply submit my return via e-filing with that box on Line A of Schedule SE unchecked. I followed their advice.

So now what? Did I get good advice? Should I leave things as they are, or should I do something further now, such as file an amended return?

My sincere thanks for your assistance. This was my first attempt at filing electronically, after exactly 50 years of filing paper returns. Not exactly an auspicious entry into this brave new world.