"Why did Turbotax make me print form 8453, referencing form 8949 which was e-filed?"

Here's why:  On the page where TurboTax asked how you wanted to enter your trades - one at a time or summarized - you answered "summarized", perhaps not understanding the consequences of that decision.

Form 8949 that you submit to the IRS is supposed to show each and every trade you made and each trade is supposed to contain the following information:

• Description of what was sold
• Date acquired
• Date sold
• Proceeds
• Cost
• Adjustment code (if necessary)
• Adjustment amount (if necessary)
  
• Gain or loss

IF you opted to summarize your sales THEN you were supposed to make "summary" entries for each of the six sales categories, (Box A, Box B, Box C, etc.), where you had trades.  That is for each sales category you'd enter the total proceeds, total cost, total adjustments (if any), etc. needed.  These numbers show up on Form 8949 - which is still part of your income tax return - but of course the Form 8949 you submit doesn't contain the required detail.   You have to mail the detail information to the IRS submitting either a Form 8949 provided by the broker (although I guess the 1099-B will do as well) or a substitute schedule with the same information.

TurboTax just doesn't do a good job here because the consequences of selecting "summarized" are not even mentioned on the page asking the question.  You have to click through two levels of "On Demand Tax Guidance" before Form 8453 get a mention.

Tom Young

Thanks Tom.  Pretty crappy of Turbotax to say you can summarize.  Every year, I itemized every transaction, but this year, when they gave me the option, I figured I was saving time.    They didn't say it would affect my e-filing.   NOT happy about this at all!  In fact, I'm pissed I have to do it again!

look for code "M" in col (f) of one or more 8949.That is the mail in indicator
If there is not any M, there is nothing to do.

Yeah - I have an "M" so it sucks.   I think Intuit needs to fix this next year!   That's what you get for hoping you can cut  corners and summarize sales.

Turbotax certainly doesn't make it easy to lodge a complaint or call customer service.   Very disappointed in their software and not providing full disclosure on the consequences of summarizing your stock sales!

The customer service person hung up on me and now I cannot reach them because they keep saying my # is not qualified for this benefit!

use a substitute form 8949, that is, consolidated 1099\b from your broker. try to trim off extraneous material.
send it to the designated IRS office for receiving such material

THat's what I plan to do - just sending the 1099 B and highlighting the appropriate #'s that tie to my filed form. But there's no way to lodge a complaint to TurboTax because their software interview should be EXPLICIT when it offers the option to summarize stock sales - that if you do that, you will have to send in paper which defeats the benefits of e-filing! Thanks fanfare.

Thanks for the answers above. I am having the same problem and am really upset about it as I thought that I was finally done with everything.  They really need to fix this in the interview.

I'm also upset with TurboTax offering no warnings about the consequences of using the summary method. All these complaints last year and nothing was done. Fell into the same trap this year.

Just as broken this year as last.  And not only didn't TurboTax warn you of the consequences of selecting summary sells, it does a VERY POOR job of telling you what to do with form 8453 & 8949.  It prints out form 8453, does NOT print form 8949 and NEVER TELLS you to send in the missing information for each individual sell.  It if had not been for this question and answer, I would not have known what to do.  I am VERY DISPOINTED with TurboTax and will not use it next year.