Balance Sheet Not Balancing

[Fund247]

I have "successfully" been using Turbo Tax Business to file my S Corp taxes since 2007. I never had to complete the Balance Sheet Sch. L in the past because assets are always way below $250K. I'm trying to complete my 2019 taxes and Schedule L is not balancing by -$39,194 loss due to the purchase of a fix and flip investment single family residence valued at $320k. I won't realize a gain until after I rehab and sell in 2020.

Sch. L Line 1 - My beginning cash account is (b) $74 and ending. (d) is $74

Line 10a begining tax year (a) $301,017 and ending (c) $301,017 balances are both $301,017

Line 10b beginning tax year (a) is ($7,811) and (b) is $293,206 and end of tax year are (c) ($7,811) and (d) $293,206

Line 12 beginning of tax year (b) $54,019 and end of tax year (d) $54,019

Line 13a beginning of tax year (a) $4,857 and end of tax year (c) $4,857

Line 13b beginning of tax year (a) ($270) and (b) $4,587 and end of tax year (c) ($270) and (d) $4,587

Line 15 beginning of tax year (b) $351,886 and end of tax year (d) $351,886

Line 17 Mortgages, etc beginning of tax year (b) $292,825 and end of tax year (d) $292,825

Line 24 Retained Earnings **(This is what is causing out of balance)** Beginning of tax year (b) $0 and end of tax year (d) -$39,194

Line 27 beginning of tax year (b) $292,825 and end of tax year (d) $253,631.

Out of balance by $39,194.

I didn't take any distributions. Basically house rich and cash poor. All of the assets are in the equity.

I've read several articles on Balance Sheet Not Balancing and haven't been able to find a solution.  Any assistance is very much appreciated. 

[M-MTax]

RE is a liability account so you need to debit....increase....an asset account probably related to your purchase.

[Fund247]

Thanks for replying. So I just need to debit (increase) RE asset account by the $39,194 loss? Would I debit (increase) the equity amount or the land amount? Or perhaps divide the $39,194 ÷ 2 = $19,597 and debit (increase) equity and land by $19,597 each?

Really appreciate your help.

[Rick19744]

At this point I don't think it is wise to just "plug" anything.

What @M-MTax is saying, is that it is possible that something in your balance sheet may not be correct.

If this is the first year for completing a balance sheet, I recommend that you start out by completing a beginning of the year balance sheet and getting it to balance.

It appears odd that beginning and ending cash are the same.  Could be, but just seems odd.

Even when attempting to get a beginning of the year balance sheet pulled together, this will most likely require a "plug" to retained earnings.  However, before you do that, you need to make sure that every other balance sheet item is correct.

Unless you had absolutely no business activity, beginning of the year retained earnings wouldn't be zero.

Going forward, I would recommend using software like Quickbooks or the equivalent.

TT doesn't really "prepare" the balance sheet portion of the return.  This is all driven by input.

While these two amounts won't agree, take a look at your beginning retained earnings (when computed) and compare it to the beginning AAA account.  Are they reasonable close?  They should be unless you have significant book tax differences.