I finally figured it out by reading more closely the 1099-B that Fidelity provided.
There is a section named "Supplemental Stock Plan Lot Detail" and I noticed the lines in the first section of the 1099-B that were marked with a cost basis suffix of "(e)" were also shown differently in the Supplemental Stock Plan Lot Detail section.
They were marked as Grant Type: QSP.
QSP represents: Qualified ESPP Shares
Therefore, the (e) indicates QSP, which indicates ESPP shares disposed. Also, if you recall, the TurboTax software stated that ESPP sales would NOT be marked as Needs Review, which is actually incorrect. The existence of the "(e)" on Fidelity's 1099-B breaks the Turbo Tax import and zeros out the cost basis and acquisition date, which causes those lines to be marked Needs Review and then when you edit the row, the data is in an unacceptable state.
Conclusion: When customers ask about cost basis being unexpectedly zero upon 1099-B import, you should have them check their original tax form for any characters included as prefixes or suffixes by the brokerage that may have broken the import to Turbo Tax. In the case of Fidelity, they use an (e) in the cost basis cell value as a suffix to the dollar amount. Customers should review the Supplemental Stock Plan Lot Detail section of the original 1099-B to determine the Grant Type code and then set the appropriate sale type manually in the Turbo Tax software.
It would be great if TurboTax could repair this defect in their software.
