I think I am understanding everything better but wanted to add perhaps for my sake as well as to help anyone else following in my confused footsteps.
As mentioned, I'm plowing through TurboTax and it is asking me questions like "What are the Retain Earnings. I look at my QBO (Quickbooks Online) balance sheet for the start of 2026 and put that number and it TurboTax says "Wait!!! That is way off!!". But I finally click a little help link and it says:
How to Calculate Retained Earnings
Retained earnings means earnings of the corporation not yet distributed to its shareholders.
To calculate retained earnings from your books:
- Start with beginning retained earnings.
- Add current earnings or subtract current loss.
- Subtract shareholder distributions that are not booked as compensation or loans.
If you cannot find your book beginning retained earnings, use the amount on the 2024 corporate tax return (Form 1120S, page 4, Schedule L, line 24d).
So... I can't just use the QBO report. I have to subtract what it called Retain Earnings from the Equity account I called Shareholder Distributions. Yeah... Ok. That's fine but golly geeze this seems much more obfuscated than necessary.
