I had a tough time remembering how to calculate Qualified Business Income. It's very cryptic.
The Intuit forum had an
answer that lined up with what was automatically calculated in last year's Free File Fillable Forms (RIP).
The amount appearing on Form 8995, line 1(c) is line 31 of Schedule C minus the deduction for 1/2 of the self employment tax.
The
official IRS instructions do not say shit about 1/2 of the self-employment tax. The closest it gets is:
To figure the total amount of QBI, you must consider all items that are attributable to the trade or business. This includes, but isn’t limited to, unreimbursed partnership expenses, business interest expense, deductible part of self-employment tax, self-employment health insurance deduction, and contributions to qualified retirement plans.
I guess in some other IRS document, it says that the "deductible part of self-employment tax" is 50%.
Anyway, that is the worst part of doing your own taxes. Everything else is explicit and amounts to careful step-following.