Capital Asset Sales Entry Worksheet - not calculating long/short term correctly?

[babyrd55]

I have a simple entry on the Capital Asset Sales Entry Worksheet. Mutual fund dividend shares acquired 12/13/24 were sold on 10/7/25 - less than 10 months later. The worksheet is calculating this as long-term. Since I've fiddled around with that entry a lot I decided to re-enter it; but when I did TT again said it was long-term. I can override to short-term and TT does not flag it as an error, but:

• Will TT allow me to file a return with an override on it?; and
• Why is this occurring? Is there some weird provision being triggered that I'm not aware of (I am a retired CPA), or is this just a flat-out form error?

Using Windows desktop version of TT, v2025.47.23.38.

Thanks.

Brent

[MelindaS1]

Because overriding it may flag an e-filing error, I would suggest switching to Step-by-Step mode (upper right hand corner), rather than entering it into the worksheet directly, and answering the interview questions under Wages & Income > Investments and savings > Add investments > Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds

I don't know all the different ways that you've tried entering these transactions, but in general, it's not recommended to enter everything in Forms mode (since the software is designed for the average user). 

[babyrd55]

Thank you Melinda. Unfortunately that doesn't work for me. There's an issue with the transaction at my brokerage that I have to manually correct. 

I started a blank return to experiment in. I went to the CASW and input a very simple transaction with the dates in the short-term range. TURBOTAX ENTERED IT AS LONG-TERM. Sorry, this is just wrong. The form has never done this in the past, and if you changed the dates it would switch back & forth between long/short term as appropriate. Now it just sits on long-term unless overridden.

Apologies for shouting, but THIS IS AN ERROR THAT NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED. There could be people underpaying because of this if they don't notice the discrepancy.

BTW, the import is no picnic either. While it did bring in the correct information (at least as I can see it on a quick review), it did it by setting up 16 different forms, none of which are identified as to the account at the higher levels. You have to dig into each form to try to identify the account, and for dividend and interest accounts there is no identification of the account on the individual worksheet. Only the 1099-B's have account identification, and that only by the account number. And if you change the name so you can see it for later review, then next year it will apparently set up new accounts again without the names. BTW, all accounts are also set up as belonging to "taxpayer" and none as "spouse". This can potentially cause matching issues at the IRS - not sure how they do this internally.

So PLEASE submit this as an fix that needs to be made stat.

Much appreciated, thank you.

Brent

[MelindaS1]

The first step in requesting a correction is to examine a diagnostic tax file experiencing the situation.  You can provide a diagnostic copy of your tax data file so that I can take a closer look.  The diagnostic file will not contain personally identifiable information, only numbers related to your tax forms.  

If you would like to provide us with the diagnostic file, follow the instructions below and post the token number along with which version of TurboTax you are using and what states you are filing in the thread.  It would be helpful to have a screenshot of the token number to prevent it from being redacted.

If you are using a CD/downloaded version of TurboTax, use these steps:

• Select Online at the top of the screen.
• Select Send Tax File to Agent.
• Click OK.
• Post the token number here.

Thank you.

[babyrd55]

Done. Thank you Melinda.

[babyrd55]

Oh, I should also mention that the transaction on the CASW with a sale date of 10/7/24 shows as short-term because it is overridden from long-term. I'm not sure if that will come through in the file that was sent. Thanks.

Brent

[CatinaT1]

We can not see your token number. Can you resend it?

[babyrd55]

OK, trying again. It shows immediately below this text for me.

Thanks.

Brent

[RogerD1]

I used the token you provided and saw what you are seeing.  Not only was this incorrectly deemed a long-term gain, the gain and loss was also incorrect.  I was able to delete the entry and re-enter on your return and the sale was changed to short-term and the gain was also calculated correctly.

Did you do an import to get this information in TurboTax?  I noticed that this entry was labeled as a Stock sale when you had said in your original post that it was Mutual fund shares.  Also the question about How did you receive this investment was not answered.  You may want to recheck your other entries to make sure the investment type and the how you received the investment questions are all answered.  While importing is a timesaver, it still needs to be double-checked to make sure that all the information got transferred over.

[babyrd55]

Hi Roger. Thank you for looking at this.

First: I entered the transaction directly onto the asset worksheet. I don't generally work through the interview method as I would have been the person conducting the interview, not being interviewed. Also, since I use TurboTax to check my own tax estimation spreadsheets I just need to spot enter some information as I have it available, and the interview process to me makes it somewhat difficult to get to where you want to be in that case.

Interestingly, I also tried re-entering the same transaction (while I was still preparing the return) and it again came back to LT on my return. No idea why we're getting different responses on that. (I apply updates as they come up on TurboTax launch, so we should be on the same version.)

The transaction is mutual fund shares which I entered directly. Did not do an import for the live return. I did as a test start a blank return and do an import. The numbers came in correctly but, unfortunately, for 1099- INT and DIV, the import does not identify which account the 1099 is for, which means a lot of correcting of names. For the capital gains each CAS worksheet was identified, but only by brokerage account number, again not with a name. I of course don't know if this in inherent in TurboTax or something from my brokerage.

I don't even see where to identify stock vs mutual fund and how acquired, but they don't actually affect the taxes. I did actually walk through the interview process for the capital gains, as TT was telling me that there was missing information on that worksheet that couldn't be access by the worksheet. So I filled it all in via interview, but possibly I missed something if all it needed was a change. This particular transaction as noted was a mutual fund; did the export routine perhaps set it back to stock as part of the privacy part?

Good news is, I e-filed the returns last week and both went through within 15-30 minutes, so the override did not affect anything.

My point in starting this thread was simply that whatever the issue is on the CAS worksheet, it needs to be identified and fixed. If someone without my tax knowledge was using direct entry, they could overlook this and wind up underpaying taxes. And yes I realize you all recommend using the interview, but that doesn't mean working the other way should produce an incorrect result.

Thanks.

Brent