In 2010 (only that year) a self employed federal filer could deduct health insurance payments (from line 29, 1040) from net income (using line 3 as explained above) in order to decrease self employment taxes. A filer with a low net income to start with would end up with such a low net income after that deduction that no social security quarters would be allowed for that year. If one of the main goals of the filer was to obtain those 4 quarters (requires about $4,500 net income) then would the filer have the option of not taking the deduction? And should the filer so indicate on the form so that the IRS would not try to "correct" the omitted deduction?