How do I get the tax withhold in eTrade for ESPP and RSU?

[yida1]

For example, I am vested for 10 RSUs and 5 of them are withholding for tax purpose. How do I import that information in eTrade?

[TomYoung]

"How do I get the tax withhold in eTrade for ESPP and RSU?"

The most likely answer, statistically, is "You don't.  Those taxes have already been reported on your W-2 and you can't report them again."

The cash raised by the sale of stock "for taxes" is in almost every case passed back to the employer, who pays the taxes, and scatters those taxes among all the "tax" boxes of your W-2.  

IF you are one of the fairly rare individuals subject to "backup withholding" THEN the broker must report those taxes on the 1099-B.  If you don't see those boxes filled in on the 1099-B then the employer got the cash and paid the tax.

Many people are completely certain that they must report the taxes (again) because they feel that otherwise they have double reported their income.  If you're in that boat then you probably have double reported your income because you are using the wrong basis to report the sale.  That's because the broker only reports your out of pocket cost of acquiring the stock, not the correct basis which is the sum of your out of pocket cost and the compensation element of the stocks you've SOLD. 

IF you know the correct basis to use for the sales - brokers seem to be including that information routinely with supplemental information that's mailed with the 1099-B THEN you can simply enter the 1099-B as it reads and correct the basis.  You do that by clicking the blue "I'll enter additional info on my own" button and on the next page entering the correct basis in the "Corrected cost basis" box.  The correct basis is: (# of shares sold) x (per share basis for that lot.)

If you're unsure of your basis you can use the RSU step-by-step and ESPP step-by-step interviews and, correctly done, they will determine the correct basis to use.  Be aware though that many people are confused by those interviews.

Tom Young

[DDollar]

To properly report transactions related to Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) shares, you will need to manually enter them. 

The ordinary income portion of your transaction is reported on your W-2.  You will have to enter the 1099-B to account for any capital gain or loss as well as adjust to cost basis to reflect the amount reported on your W-2.  To enter your 1099-B, go to:

• Federal Taxes
• Wages & Income
• Investment Income
• Stocks, Mutual Funds, Bonds, Other
• Answer Yes you received a 1099-B
• Do not enter your broker-dealer name and download your 1099-B, instead,
• Click on "I'll type it in myself"
• Enter your Broker and click Continue
• Indicate the type of trades you have on your 1099-B (A, B, D, E, X)
• Enter the details of your transactions as reported on your 1099-B THEN
• Check the Box for "This sale involves an employee stock plan (including ESPP) or an uncommon situation".  Additional information will appear.  Click on Start Now
• Indicate "I have sales from an Employee Stock Plan, including ESPP, NQSO, ISO, RS, and RSU"
• Follow the instructions for the type of employee stock plan you have.  Additional information on these plans is available by clicking the blue Learn More link
  

[Kamalesh]

Why the tax withheld information is not reported on my 1099-B provided  by E*TRADE?

[BobLosAltos]

The reason E-Trade doesn't report all the needed information is because their programmers have not be asked to do it yet.  You have to go to the E-trade web-site and drill down into the trade information based on the lot that you sold, and there is the information you need.

[BobLosAltos]

Here are steps you can take to get to the needed information.  There may be a shorter method, but this path works:

1.  Log in, and then click on "Stock Plan" tab to the right of the big E-trade logo.

2.  Click on the "Holdings" tab in the line immediately below the big E-trade logo

3.  Scroll down and click on the grant you are interested in getting information on.  If there are not more grants, click on the hyper text  "here" located after the sentence "You currently have no holdings".

 4.  Now scroll down to the grant of interest, click on the arrow on the left of that one to expand, and drill down till you see "View Confirmation of Release"

5.  Click on "View confirmation of release" and a new window will come up with all the information you were looking for.