Hi,
I need to amend my 2016 return due to the fact that I entered incorrect cost basis information for a ESPP stock sale. After going through the amend return flow and changing the cost basis, the program does not update refund information based on the new (higher) cost basis entered. I should be shown a refund, but the program and paperwork that I print at the end all show $0. There seems to be a bug here as I also updated my W2 as a test and the refund numbers updated as expected. How do I fix this?
Thanks
They are short term capital gains, not long term, and my federal tax bracket is 28% so they're definitely being taxed. You are right though, there was nothing wrong with the TurboTax application. I forgot that I have a capitol loss carryover, so when I adjusted the cost basis to include the compensation income that was reported on my W-2 that difference was just added to the carryover, which explains why the federal and state refunds show $0. Now off to file this amended return, thanks for your help!
Actually, the TurboTax program might very well be correct here. In both screen shots - 2016 "as filed" and 2016 "as amended" - you have a relatively small long term capital gain. If your taxable income - including the capital gains - have you in the lowest two tax brackets then long term capital gains are taxed a 0%, meaning that your tax liability was not affected when you entered the sale in 2016 originally and is likewise not being affected when you change the LTCG to a smaller amount with your amendment. I assume that the compensation income created by the sale was on your W-2 and the mistake was that you forgot to add that compensation to your "out of pocket" cost when you originally filed.
Since you are using the desktop version of the program you should be able to confirm this by looking at the tax calculation itself, most likely on the "Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet."
Tom Young