Get your taxes done using TurboTax
The IRS changed Form 6252 between 2018 and 2019. You are now required to complete Part 1 each year. Part I includes all of the details of the sale.
This creates a problem for people that sold property on an installment sale years ago, and no longer have that information.
There is a way to work around this problem, as long as you know the gross profit percentage on the sale. This information should be on Part II line 19 of your 2018 Form 6252.
As long as you enter the correct gross profit percentage, and you don’t indicate that you have already received all of your principal back in prior years, TurboTax will compute the taxable portion of your principal received in 2019 correctly.
Here is how to enter a prior year installment sale in TurboTax when you don’t know the selling price or basis.
Go back and edit the installment sale.
The first screen is Property Description
Under selling price and basis enter two numbers that create a gross profit equal to the gross profit percentage on the original sale. For instance, if the gross profit percentage was 30%, enter $100,000 for the price and $70,000 for the basis.
The next screen is Let's get the details of your rental sale
Here you enter your gross profit percentage and the amount of principal paid to you in prior years. If you don’t indicate that you have already received all of your principal back in prior years, TurboTax will compute the taxable portion of your principal received in 2019 correctly.
A few screens later you will enter your principal and interest received, here you enter the actual figures.
The dollar amount of the installment sale will not show, but it will be entered on Schedule D.
