It's clear to me that you used the RSU step by step interview. That's the only way that TurboTax can possibly calculate the compensation. I generally advise not using the RSU step by step interview as many people find that interview confusing and mistakes get made. There's no valid "income tax reporting" reason to use that interview EXCEPT if for some reason the compensation income created by the vesting WASN'T reported on the W-2, but that's not your situation.
So if you know that TurboTax is reporting the correct basis for your sales I'd suggest writing those numbers down, deleting the trades, and simply entering the trades again using TurboTax's default 1099-B entry form. Enter the 1099-B exactly how it reads, click the blue "additional info" button, and enter the correct basis on the page that comes up.
If you want to stick with the RSU step by step process then I can tell you that TurboTax calculates the compensation exactly as your employer is supposed to. For each vesting the calculation is (GROSS number of shares) x (per share FMV at vesting). So one of two things could account for the "miss":
- you entered an incorrect per share FMV for a vesting, or
- you didn't tell TurboTax about ALL the vestings that occurred in the year
So, for example, if you had a vesting from which no stock was sold, you wouldn't enter it in the RSU step by step interview and TurboTax would come up short on its compensation calculation. You could actually enter a 0-share "trade" in order to get all the vesting reported to TurboTax. It's a little odd of course, but it gets you the right answer.
Tom Young
