As a self-employed individual, if you made contributions to a retirement plan such as a SEP, SIMPLE, or Keogh plan, you may be able to claim a deduction on your tax return for those contributions.

The TaxAct^® program offers the Publication 560 Worksheet in order for certain self-employed individuals to calculate their maximum deductible contribution limit. At the bottom of this worksheet, you are able to enter the actual contributions which should not exceed your deductible contribution limit. This amount will be transferred to Schedule 1 (Form 1040) Additional Income and Adjustments to Income, Line 15.

Certain individuals do not qualify to use this worksheet. See IRS Publication 560 Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE, and Qualified Plans) to determine whether you qualify.

To access the Publication 560 Worksheet in the TaxAct program:

1. From within your TaxAct return (Online or Desktop), click Federal. On smaller devices, click in the upper left-hand corner, then click Federal.
2. Click Business Income in the Federal Quick Q&A Topics menu to expand, then click Self-employed retirement plans.
3. Continue with the interview process to enter all of the appropriate information.
4. On the screen titled Business Income - Retirement Plans, click Yes if you have or will be making a contribution to a self-employed retirement plan.
5. On the second screen titled Business Income - Retirement Plans, click Pub. 560 Worksheet.
6. Enter the information in the worksheet, then click Save & Close (Desktop or Professional Edition users will not see a Save & Close button - use the x in the upper right to close the worksheet). The information entered in the Pub. 560 Worksheet will flow to IRS Schedule 1 (Form 1040), Line 15.

Note. Changes to your return could cause this calculation to be automatically revised and could change the amount of your deduction.

Note that any link in the information above is updated each year automatically and will take you to the most recent version of the document at the time it is accessed.