Investors & landlords

I just finished dealing with my RSU with TurboTax. Yes, TurboTax user interface is very confusing. 

First of all you need more than basic TurboTax, I have TurboTax Premier. It has a step-by-step support for RSU. Not sure about Deluxe etc.

Seems like you have sale-to-cover for your taxes when RSU vest. That's why etrade sold some units to "cover" for the taxes (and paid the proceed as a tax to IRS).

It is correct that your entire vest lot is considered a regular income and reported on W2. So, for example if you have 200 units vested, and FMV on the vest date is $10.00, $10.00 * 200 = $2000 is reported on your W2.


Although, as you noticed some of those 200 units, e.g. (say) 50 are sold by etrade to cover for the taxes. After that you'll see that you have 150 units in your etrade account. 

In my case, 50 tax units were sold on the next business day. So you'll have to be careful about vest date and sale date not being same. So it was not the same day sale. Therefore, etrade sent me 1099-B.

First thing you'll have to figure out if you have received 1099-B for RSU vesting or not. After I entered 1099-B transaction, TT asked me if this is some sort of "employee stock plan sale", I said yes. On the next screen it presented me "ESPP", "RSU" etc., asking further what specific kind of employee stock plan is that. Click RSU, and follow the step-by-step interview.

If you have multiple vesting in 2016, then you'll have to repeat the above for each transaction reported on 1099-B.