Why does this sytem think I am self-employed? I'm retired fully and so is my wife. What do I have to do to get rid of the self-employed and work related expense?

Although you may not be self employed, TurboTax is taking extra steps to ensure you have access to the right tools and support specific to your tax needs.

If you've entered an amount from any of the boxes on the slips listed here, you have what the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) considers to be self-employment or business income:
T4 slip: box 81, 82 or 83
T4A slip: box 20 or 48
T4A slip: box 28 and you selected Yes to the question Does the income declared in Box 028 consist of fees collected for services you provided? in TurboTax Online (needs to say NO to indicate no self-employment)
T3 slip: box 24 (foreign business income)

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

In that case, I don't think Turbotax is for me. After using it for several years, I will switch to some other service.

I have checked all of these, and I am not checked on any. Still, TurboTax is telling me I'm self-employed. Why??

Did TurboTax upgrade your software to self-employed, or is it asking you to upgrade?

It upgraded my software by itself.

@miabricknell Do you have rental income? Rental income is only included in TurboTax Self-Employed Online in 2023.

I am also having this issue. I'm just using the free turbotax online and it won't let me continue without upgrading. All I have is salary income, tuition expenses from previous years, student loans, and I repaid covid benefits. All of these things are on the info pop-up for "simple tax returns".

If you've entered an amount from any of the boxes on the slips listed here, you have what the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) considers to be self-employment or business income:

T4 slip: box 81, 82 or 83
T4A slip: box 20 or 48
T4A slip: box 28 and you selected Yes to the question Does the income declared in Box 028 consist of fees collected for services you provided? in TurboTax Online (needs to say NO to indicate no self-employment)
T3 slip: box 24 (foreign business income)

There might be donations in box 46 of your T4 or Employee-paid premiums (medical) in box 85 of your T4 which would require an upgrade to allow you to claim additional credits not included in the free version. Please see the list below enumerating what is or is not included in the free version.

Simple tax returns include:

Employment income

Pension income

Other employment income such as tips

RRSP contributions

Child care expenses

COVID-19 benefits and re-payments

Unemployment (EI) and social assistance

Worker’s compensation

Disability amount

Worker’s benefit

Amount for eligible/infirm dependents

Tuition, scholarships, bursaries, grants, student loan interest

Caregiver tax credit

Disability transfer

Home accessibility tax credit

Tax on RESPs and RDSPs

Tax installment payments

Age amount

Income, credits, and deductions not listed above are not covered by TurboTax Free, including:

Employment expenses (meals, lodging, etc.)

Donations

Medical expenses

Investment income and expenses

Rental property income and expenses

Self-employed income and expenses

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

Okay so the only thing there is box 85. Which means you're calling it "self-employment" and you want me to pay 60$ to file my taxes because the company I work for doesn't cover the entire cost of employee benefits themselves. Which no company does. 

That is completely ridiculous. 

You say I have to upgrade to "allow you to claim additional credits" but what if I don't care about those credits and just want to file my taxes?? Or I can just file that one single form myself?? You literally wont let me file my taxes at all because of one single "additional credit" that makes so little difference to my claim. 

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Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

Hi There,

I don't know if you solved the problem but I was having the same issue and was able to resolve it. It took about 3 or 4 reviews of my entries until I noticed my error. One that would be easily overlooked. When entering the amount on box 28 for the T4A, I noticed there are two (2) Box 28s. I accidentally entered the amount into the wrong Box 28. This entry error triggered the warning that stated I had self-employment income. Once I entered the value into the other Box 28, the warning during the review was removed.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for your helpful update. We appreciate it.

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.