Any TurboTax users out there?

[monophoto]

Has anyone else encountered a problem downloading 1099B data with TurboTax this year?

The download seemed to work fine, but now when I try to look at the data, TT locks up. Spent two hours on the phone with TT support this morning, but so far they are clueless.

 

[TonyL]

Not yet, but I will be on the lookout for that issue. Thanks!

 

[Rio grande penmaker]

Not having any problems with TT. Have you tried reinstalling it?

 

[monophoto]

Ron

When I was on the phone with TT support, she initially suspected that the problem could be that the version I'm using (Deluxe) doesn't have the ability to handle 1099B forms. You may recall that several years ago, TT tried to drop that feature from the Deluxe version and force people who need it to upgrade to a more expensive package - they got a blowback over that one! So she upgraded me to the Premier version but that didn't solve the problem. Then, she had me delete the software entirely and reinstall it. Also didn't solve the problem.

I'm suspicious that the problem is that the downloaded data is corrupted, but I can't delete the data to repeat the download (there is a way to delete blocks of data using the 'forms' option, but when I try to use it, the software locks up.)

TT is supposed to be conducting an investigation, and I hope that they can find a solution. The only option that occurs to me is to delete the entire return and start over, and that would be painful since I was in the final steps prior to submission when this happened.

Normally, I input most of the data manually, and leave the 1099B download to the end because that data is subject to changes. But in the future, I think it might be more prudent to do the data download first so that if something goes wrong, throwing away the corrupted return and starting over would be less painful.

 

[Rio grande penmaker]

Louie,

i have always manually loaded the 1099-B data because it never seemed to work right when I tried to download it directly in to TT. I forgot this quirk in my earlier response.

 

[monophoto]

UPDATE:

I tried two things. First, I have a medical research application running in the background on my computer (Folding@home). To make sure that function isn't consuming CPU capacity, it temporarily turned it off. I then ran TT and attempted to look at the downloaded 1099B data - the software immediately 'locked up'. So I let it sit and simmer - and after about 30-45 minutes, it started working normally.

So it appears that the problem is really not a problem. A non-scientific suspicion is that the because there are a lot of transactions in the 1099B data, it just takes time to actually crunch the numbers, and that problem may have been aggravated by having the Folding@home application running in the background.

To Ron's point - years ago, I used to enter the numbers manually. That was really tedious - it generally took 4-6 hours, and it seemed that I could never get all the data entered without making mistakes, and finding those errors took several more hours of detailed number chasing.

 

[Rio grande penmaker]

I would like to hear if your problem is solved.

 

[monophoto]

I would like to hear if your problem is solved.

I think so. I was able to get access to the imported 1099B data to check that it matched the printed report from the brokerage house, and I filed my tax return. So now its wait and see if I made any mistakes.

Incidentally, I did get some feedback from TT - the software is supposed to be able to handle upwards of 2000 brokerage transactions, but they noted that importing a very long list can be problematic, and suggested that an alternative approach is to manually enter summary numbers from the brokerage printed report rather than download detail transaction data - eg, Short term covered, short term uncovered, long term covered, long term uncovered. That's easy to do, but I've always been inclined to include the detailed information.

 

[TonyL]

Hi Louie:

I don't doubt your experience or what you learned from TT. Last year, I imported close to several hundred trades across several accounts. TT sucked them all in accurately. I did this in October for 2020 for tax year 2019. I plan on doing it again. We will see what happens when I try the same for tax year 2020. Hopefully, it will work, but there is an easy way around this. Keep reading if interested.

You do not have to enter all of the trades/sales individually. You can enter in the summarized information and attach your 1099B. If decide to go this route, there is another form that must accompany the summarized trades (very simple to complete). I am a CPA and have used it several times. Here it is: Form 8949.

Also, as you may know , check to make sure the total proceeds from your sales only include sales when it comes to bonds, debt instruments, etc. As silly as this sounds, some brokerage firms mistakenly report "return of investment" as sales proceeds.

Send me a PM and number if you have any questions.

Good luck!