Entering information on sale of stock turbotax will not accept the numbers for shares and net proceeds, claiming numbers are too large. What should I do?

TurboTax limits the number of digits in data entry fields to nine, including the cents figures to the right of the decimal point.

To illustrate, enter the 8-digit amount 10,000,000 into box 1 of your W-2 form in TurboTax. (Don't you wish?) TurboTax will add .00 to the amount, exceeding the 9-digit limit, and you'll see the message The value is too large for this field. Please enter a smaller number.

To get around this,  break the transaction down into two or three equal transactions with identical information.

• Where do I enter a 1099-B?

I received an email referencing Contact #15118 saying that the problem was resolved with the latest update, but didn't provide the update/version number. The latest program update I have is R18, but that didn't solve this problem of the value/data field adding ".00" to a rounded number to exceed the number of digits allowed. I need 10 spaces (8 numbers + 2 commas) to summarize stock transactions from my 1099-B.

Has this problem been fixed?  It's ridiculous that TurboTax can't handle more than 10 digits.  Ongoing nightmare with this software that doesn't allow an import for 2018 - and now, it can't handle more than 10 digits?  wth?

Nothing has changed here.  It's a "retail" program designed for the needs of the vast majority of taxpayers.  If you're dealing with trades or anything else that exceed $10 million you're outside of that vast majority. 

If you're dealing with stock trades where you're entering numbers ($s x # of shares) and one of the numbers exceed the limit, then sometimes you can move the decimal point of the "too large" number X number of places to the left and move the decimal point of the other number X number of places to the right.  It's the Product number that's really important in an income tax return.

Today 2/23/2020 am entering the summary for the 1099-B and am getting the error "The value is too large..."  Am just entering 19million and Turbo Tax has not yet fixed this issue.  Also, until now - you cannot attach a pdf for online submission of 8949.  What a shame.  After using TurboTax for 2 decades I will be switching to TaxAct.

Note: Customer Service also was terrible, informed me to just enter the largest I can - tell that to the IRS.   

Thanks for reminding me that I still have to deal with this mess.  I was trying to be ahead of the game and get my taxes done early - but for the idiocy of TurboTax, I cannot move forward.  I mean, what does it take to expand the field to 10 or 11 digits?  I might be switching to TaxAct too.  Let me know how it works out.  Good luck. 🙂

just experiencing this issue myself right now. 

i called customer service and the guy I dealt with contacted his higher ups and they said couldn't use since amount too large.

anyone have a solution yet?

As mentioned in the thread, the largest number you can enter in TurboTax is 9,999,999.99 . Let's say you need to enter sales proceeds of $15,600,000.00  TurboTax won't accept it.  To get around this, break it down into three transactions of $5,200,000.00.  You would also need to adjust the cost basis and # of shares accordingly.

that work around seemed to work! hope that works for the IRS too! 

after entering for the second broker, it asked to upload the 1099B document, but you can only upload one document. How do you upload 2 documents if you have for 2 brokers?

To import the information from the second broker. see How do I import my 1099?

Here's my scenario...

I have 2 brokerage firms I'm entering info from. 

I click Edit on the first one. It goes through the motion of selecting the broker, and then entering the proceeds & cost basis. Then that's it.

But when I click Edit on the second broker...it does the same motions as the first one, except at the end it asks to upload the 1099-B.  And I can only upload ONE document. It says if you need to upload a different document, delete the first document.

So how can I upload TWO documents? or what's the solution here?

Thanks!

Just ran into this issue, and it is a VERY short sided coding issue, should be easily fixed. You don't have to have made 10,000,000 on a w-2 to run into it. Anyone who dabbled in day trading can get there really quick because if you buy/sell/buy/sell/buy/sell your cost and proceeds stack up. You could easily have something like 20,000,000 cost 20,010,000 proceeds. In that case (similar to mine) you didnt MAKE 10m, never HAD 10m, but the frequency of trading caused large reported numbers. Honestly, anyone who has coded a single project can see that this should be an easy fix (and should never have been an issue).

Does H&R block software allow for more digits?  thx

I just tried HR Block and it crashed on 3,000 trade entries. Not sure about the $10M limit though. I am going to try to split entry to get around the $10M limit. Shame they can't fix this. 

3/15/21 - I spent over an hour on the phone Friday with at Turbo Tax Specialist.  They are aware of this problem about capital gains proceeds limited to 9 digits.   They offered no solution.  Splitting the amount into 2 smaller amounts does not work because if it is the same source.  A duplicate broker tax ID number makes the software think it is a duplicate entry.

They agreed it was a problem for almost 2 years now and offered a refund.

If enough folks ask for a refund, maybe they will solve a simple problem..

Has any one solver this?

Did you try TaxAct?  Did it work for you?  TurboTax isn't helping us out here with this problem.
Thanks.

I had a "chat" with a TaxAct support person who answered TaxAct also does not allow 10 digit entries. She connected me with a TaxAct support page. The page was specifically created to say "No, we won't accept a 10,000,000.00 entry. So stop asking." (The quote is not literal. TaxAct uses many more words to say the same thing) TaxAct tops out at nine digits including 2 useless digits to the right of the decimal point. As you all know, they're useless because the IRS likes entries rounded to the nearest dollar and, as far as I know, all tax prep software adheres to this. And what's most nuts about this digit input limitation is that none of the final 1040 form entries generated by the tax prep programs include the .00.  The only place the .00 matters is to limit the biggest entry to 9,999,99.00. That's just ....weird.

I had hopes for TaxAct, but their support page made it pretty clear. "We're just as inane on this subject as TurboTax, HRBlock, etc. We count .00 for maximum digit entry but nowhere else." (Once again, not a real quote, just less words than they use to say the same thing)

Lastly (finally), I had also left an email inquiry. The person who wrote me said "We support 9 digit entries so $10,000,000 won't be a problem."  I respectfully responded with "so the biggest number I can enter is $999,999,999? Why not a billion? What's the problem? I'll live with it if I have to.".

I'm waiting patiently to hear from her why they can't do a billion. 

Sorry about all the above. Short answer, TaxAct won't do better than Turbo on max entry. But they will charge you more for the same service.

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@Should I be doing this  wrote:

 

 

Lastly (finally), I had also left an email inquiry. The person who wrote me said "We support 9 digit entries so $10,000,000 won't be a problem."  I respectfully responded with "so the biggest number I can enter is $999,999,999? Why not a billion? What's the problem? I'll live with it if I have to.".

 

I'm waiting patiently to hear from her why they can't do a billion. 

It is not a TurboTax limit.  It is the e-file form specifications (schemas) issued by the IRS that specifies how many characters a field can have.   The IRS e-file also requires rounding cents to the nearest dollar.

Self-prepared software has limitations that professional software does not.    The IRS interface for professional software is different.

Hi, ever find a solution to this problem?

TaxAct Premier worked just fine for me.  I used the summary option and attached my 1099 pdf.

I used the downloaded PC version.  No need to play any games like splitting amounts.

Thanks, do you remember how many digits the summary number was?  TT summary field only allows 7 digits plus .00

For example, here is one of my numbers that i can not enter Short A (basis reported to the IRS) 18,471,356.26

My short term column d & e numbers were in the same range as yours (xx,xxx,xxx).  They are rounded, so no cents.

Thanks, I'll take a look.