My suggestion is to NOT use the RSU step by step interview to report these sale. That interview confuses lots of people and there is no valid "income tax reporting" reason that you need to use that particular interview. You can report the sale as a simple sale of plain-vanilla stock, stock that's no different than a stock you bought through your broker.
But to answer the question you've posed in your example, you'd say 50 shares vested on the 50 share sale and 150 shares vested on the 150 share sale. That "withheld for taxes" box can be left blank. But if you do end up using the RSU step by step interview make sure you go all the way to the end of the "Stocks, Mutual Funds, Bonds, Other" interview. Don't just stop when you finish entering the trades. There's a page that comes up asking if the compensation created by the vestings of the RSU's agrees to your W-2.
Here's the information you need to understand so you don't consider yourself a "stock imbecile."
- It's the vesting of an RSU, not any sale of stock, that creates the compensation income that gets reported on your W-2.
- For any particular RSU vesting, (i.e. each "lot"), the compensation is calculated as: (GROSS number of shares vesting) x (per share fair market value at vesting date.) I've emphasized GROSS because the compensation is not calculated on the net shares you actually end up receiving after shares are sold or withheld for taxes.
- Accordingly, your basis in the GROSS number of shares vesting is the same as the compensation created by the vesting.
- And you can figure your per share basis in any lot by simply dividing the compensation created by the vesting by the GROSS number of shares received in that lot.
Here's what makes reporting the sale of stock acquired via an RSU just slightly puzzling: starting in 2014 brokers need only report the "out of pocket" cost of of stock that's been acquired through an employer stock incentive program. Since you pay nothing "out of pocket" when an RSU vests, the brokers typically report a basis of $0 when you sell the stock. If you report the sale exactly like it reads on the 1099-B then you end up reporting income twice: once as "compensation" income on the W-2 when the stock vests, and then as an overstatement of "gain" (or understatement of "loss) when you report the sale.
So clearly what you need to do is to enter the sale in TurboTax just like the broker reported it, then adjust the basis from $0 to the correct amount.
To do this you simply report the sale as a plain-vanilla stock, entering the details off the 1099-B just as it reads. Then click the blue "I'll enter additional info on my own" button. On the next page enter the correct basis in the "Corrected cost basis" box. And the correct basis is simply (# of shares sold) x (per share basis for that lot). Much easier then using the RSU step by step process.
If you didn't get a 1099-B for a sale of some of those shares, (brokers aren't required to prepare 1099-B's for a "same day" sale, but they do need to prepare a "statement" with the same information), you can enter those sales, too, though you don't have to.
In this case you'd tell TurboTax that no 1099-B was received, identify that what you're selling is simply "stock", enter a description the amount of proceeds, and the date of sale. Tell TurboTax you "bought" the stock, your "date purchased" is the vesting date, and then enter your purchase price which, again is (# of shares sold) x (per share basis for that lot).
Tom Young
