Partnership loss but income reported on line 14C

[manyhappyreturns]

Married couple formed partnership in 2017. Each K-1 shows $6,228 loss in Box 1 and Box 14A, but also each K-1 shows self-employment income of $15,383 in Box 14C. My program calculates a total partnership loss of $12,456 but disregards the amount in Box 14C. The instructions say to figure SE tax using non-farm optional method, but only for income amounts much less than what shows in Box 14C. Not sure what I need to do with the $15,383. Since ProSeries program does nothing with it, do I assume it is not relevant because of the partnership loss?

[kathyc2]

The optional method is for people who want to pay into their SS fund. Main reason would be to make sure they have enough credits. See form SE instructions. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sse.pdf

[manyhappyreturns]

Thank you so much! This is exactly what I needed to know.

[Jiggers]

You can have a loss in Box 1 of the K-1 and Self-Employment Income in Box 14C.

Box 1 may have ordinary loss on a 4797 that is included in Box 1. But the loss on the 4797 doesn't reduce the self-employment income.