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Level 3
posted Feb 3, 2021 8:24:28 AM

QBI Operating Loss

I bought some Properties towards the end of last year and had to do some repairs to get rent ready; this made for an Income loss in 2019. On doing the 2020 taxes, Turbotax is now requesting me to enter QBI Passive Operating Loss for 2019 while it was doing a check of the tax information I had entered so far.

 

I thought this Software should be the one automatically handling this kind of things instead of asking me such a technical action. I don't know what it wants me to do. It wasn't even providing me a help option.

2 23 11688
2 Best answers
Expert Alumni
Feb 3, 2021 10:04:14 AM

In the case of one entity, the carryforward seems simple enough. However, that is not the case for some businesses. See this LINK for an explanation of why it is not always so cut and dried. In your case, just enter your Schedule E loss.

Expert Alumni
Feb 3, 2021 10:35:15 AM

The amount of rental losses that you can write off is proportionately phased out between $100,000 and $150,000.  

 

For example, if your adjusted gross income is $125,000, you can write off  $12,500 in rental losses in the year of the loss.  If you are an active participant and your adjusted gross income is $150,000 or more, you can write off no rental losses on your tax return in the year of the loss. 

 

When your adjusted gross income is $150,000 or more, you cannot write off any losses on your rental income. The amount of your loss sits in a separate account, and you can only write it off against your capital gains upon qualified sale of the rental property .(Sec. 469(g).

 

Under IRC § 469(g), current and carryforward passive activity losses are fully deductible in the year of an entire disposition in a fully taxable transaction to an unrelated party.

 

What is the limitations on rental house losses based on income, filing jointly.

23 Replies
Expert Alumni
Feb 3, 2021 10:04:14 AM

In the case of one entity, the carryforward seems simple enough. However, that is not the case for some businesses. See this LINK for an explanation of why it is not always so cut and dried. In your case, just enter your Schedule E loss.

Level 3
Feb 3, 2021 10:20:42 AM

Coleen, Thanks for your reply. Since we are talking about losses, I might as well ask a question that is puzzling me. I have W2 income and I also have losses of about -$67K from rental properties (bought properties in 2020 that needed rehab), I had assumed that all of the -$67K in losses will be netted against my W2 income. But I noticed that only -$16K was used this year (I saw that when I looked at the State return for the State where the properties were located). What are the rules about how much losses can be used in a tax year

 

Expert Alumni
Feb 3, 2021 10:35:15 AM

The amount of rental losses that you can write off is proportionately phased out between $100,000 and $150,000.  

 

For example, if your adjusted gross income is $125,000, you can write off  $12,500 in rental losses in the year of the loss.  If you are an active participant and your adjusted gross income is $150,000 or more, you can write off no rental losses on your tax return in the year of the loss. 

 

When your adjusted gross income is $150,000 or more, you cannot write off any losses on your rental income. The amount of your loss sits in a separate account, and you can only write it off against your capital gains upon qualified sale of the rental property .(Sec. 469(g).

 

Under IRC § 469(g), current and carryforward passive activity losses are fully deductible in the year of an entire disposition in a fully taxable transaction to an unrelated party.

 

What is the limitations on rental house losses based on income, filing jointly.

Level 2
Feb 7, 2021 11:32:58 AM

So I am having the same issue on one of my rental properties with the QBI Passive Loss carried forward from 2019.  The program carried it forward into the "regular tax" loss column, but not the QBI Passive Loss.  Are these then supposed to be the same number, or how do I be sure?  When I entered the same number in the passive loss column it impacted by raising my tax (lessening the deduction) which seams odd as it was actually registering a carry forward loss.  I called support and they indicated it should be a calculated entry but is not working.  Can you confirm or provide guidance as I am very perplexed.

 

Thanks

Expert Alumni
Feb 10, 2021 12:12:39 PM

If a loss is carried forward to combine the QBI for all business activities this loss would reduce the qualifying income eligible for QBI.  It would make sense that the tax would go up because the deduction would go down. The combined amount of income eligible for QBI provides the net result that it is calculated from.

Level 2
Feb 10, 2021 1:59:15 PM

So this does make sense, but I am still a little confused as to where the entry in the schedule E worksheet Line G for QBI Loss from 2019 comes from?  Everything imported over from last year, but upon final review its asking for a number to be input directly on the form on the schedule E worksheet passive loss "unallowed passive loss" from 2019, as this cell is empty.  The program brought forward values for the regular tax column and the AMT column, but not the QBI.  It looks like this is supposed to be an imported figure, but it is not auto-populating and the error check is requesting a manual entry.  Which location from the previous years return should I refer to in order to enter the correct figure?  It would be easy enough to enter, but I'm not certain which number from the 2019 return corresponds here.  Can you provide guidance as I'm not sure how to proceed?

Expert Alumni
Feb 10, 2021 3:44:50 PM

Form 8582 would report your passive losses. On line 4 of that form you will see your passive losses available for the current year and on line 16 you will see the losses deducted in the current year. The difference between those numbers would be the carryover loss to the next year.

Level 15
Feb 10, 2021 5:48:02 PM

While it's true that form 8582 will show your passive loss carry overs, it will not show anything concerning QBI. For that, look at last year's (2019 taxes) form 8995. Line 16 will show you your total QBI carry over loss that gets carried over to the 2020 taxes.

 

Level 2
Feb 10, 2021 11:13:58 PM

Did you ever get a reasonable answer to this?  I am having the same issue for two different rental properties.  It appears TT should just calculate it but doesn't and there is not any help for it.

Level 3
Feb 11, 2021 7:02:36 AM

Yes I did. You should go back and read the the first 3 replies to my question and I think one of them answered it

Level 3
Feb 11, 2021 7:04:08 AM

Below was the first reply I got and that was what I did.

 

Reply from Turbotax==========

In the case of one entity, the carryforward seems simple enough. However, that is not the case for some businesses. See this LINK for an explanation of why it is not always so cut and dried. In your case, just enter your Schedule E loss.

Level 2
Feb 16, 2021 7:29:48 AM

token number 742778

Expert Alumni
Feb 19, 2021 4:57:54 PM

@halstax1

 

Could you tell me why you submitted this file? I see that there is an entry on the Schedule E worksheet for 2019 Operating loss as an override. Was this a zero before? 

 

Please tell me what you are trying to do so we can look at it.

Level 2
Feb 20, 2021 6:01:29 AM

When I completed the return and went to review, a missing entry error generated for this entry.  The cell was blank on the worksheet.  I’m trying to understand where this number should be coming from.  I’ve called several times to support and am still unclear how to proceed.  I would think this entry would have been calculated from the imported data from the 2019 return, but apparently it is not and the directions are very unclear.  My question really is, should this have been calculated and if so how do I get that to occur or perhaps Oler move the over ride, and if it is not calculated, where does the number come from in the 2019 return?

 

Thank you!

Level 2
Feb 20, 2021 7:18:55 PM

I had the exact same issue.  It would not allow me to file my return unless a number was put in there when I did the review.

Level 2
Mar 7, 2021 1:49:10 PM

Hi Dave, did you ever get clarification on your situation with multiple properties?  I am in the same boat with three rental properties, two of which had losses.  I can't tell how to find the proper amounts to these questions as they are needed by property, not a total over all properties. Curious if you were able to get a satisfactory response. Thanks in advance!

Returning Member
Apr 19, 2021 3:44:29 PM

So i looked at the link you provided, but it doesn't tell me where to find the 2019 QBI operating loss so i can enter it on the Sch E QBI passive op loss form.  This was always done automatically in the years past, and I use Turbo Tax every year.  Where do I find the amount I need to enter??????

Expert Alumni
Apr 25, 2021 12:03:38 PM

You will need the Federal Carryover Worksheet from 2019. Please see the screenshot below so you can see what you are looking for:

Keep in mind this carryover will have the QBI carryover amount from ALL QBI qualifying activities. If you have something other than rental, you will need to calculate how much to assign just to the rental.

 

[Edited 4/25/2021 | 12:20 PM PST]

 

@zygoaty1

Level 2
Apr 26, 2021 8:57:35 AM

Thank you, so what if I have multiple rental properties?  How do I break them out?

 

 

 

Expert Alumni
Apr 29, 2021 8:28:31 PM

Yes, there is a specific way for you to combine (referred to aggregation) all your businesses so you can claim QBI. Here are the steps.

  1. Go to federal>wages and income>rental properties and royalties>start
  2. Enter all of your rental properties information including income expenses, profile etc.
  3. Once everything is entered, you should reach a page that says your Rental and Royalty Summary. Select edit on one of the properties.
  4. Select  Done with Rental property at the bottom of the page.
  5. Now as you scroll through the screen, there will be a screen that asks if you wish to use safe harbor to qualify for a deduction, here you will say yes if you agree to its conditions that are listed on the page.  Please look at the first screenshot I provided.
  6. The next screen will remind you to add more properties to the enterprise if you haven't done so. You will do this for each property you wish to claim QBI.  You will add these in the manner I have described in steps 4 and 5 above.  
  7. just as a precaution, you may or may not decide to aggregate your properties for this deduction. Please read this Turbo Tax link and read the article written by Champ Carl as he lists some compelling reasons you might not wish to choose this election, at least for some of your properties.

Returning Member
Apr 17, 2022 10:19:50 PM

Problem: Federal Review is asking for Schedule E QBI Passive Operating Loss and Passive Operating Loss but does not indicate which fields are missing.

 

Solution: Probably zero (0). 

 

I worked with two specialists and an expert this evening to interpret what appears to be a coding bug. In the rental property sales carryover section, Passive loss and QBI deduction ask for a by-year value to be entered. If the total loss spans multiple years, and some of the loss is from prior to 2018, one should be able to enter 0 (zero) in the 2018 & 2019 fields, however, the page will not accept the value zero.

 

During the Federal Review, I was redirected to check the values for the Schedule E form to fill out the Passive Operating Loss and QBI Operating Loss, yet, there are no fields with these titles and it was unclear what to complete (no fields were being highlighted by the system to indicate what is missing). When I entered a value, the next message indicated that the number could not be greater than zero. I entered a negative value (I suspected this was incorrect) and clicked Continue. I was greeted with a Success message that didn't feel accurate. So I navigated back to the original Carryover section and confirmed my suspicions; the original entry is not allowing zero, yet the form is requiring zero in the 2018 and 2019 fields. I corrected the values I had changed in the Federal Review, left 2018 and 2019 blank, returned to the Federal Review section and added zeros when prompted for the missing values.

 

I believe this is a bug and will cause folks to enter an incorrect value. Hopefully, mine is correct.

Level 1
Apr 30, 2024 3:42:02 PM

NEVER DID GET AN ANSWER TO MY QUESTION -- STILL HAVEN'T FILED THE 2022 TAXES AS A RESULT.   YIKES! i'D BE GLAD TO HEAR ANY SUGGESTIOPNS YOU MIGHT HAVE

Employee Tax Expert
Apr 30, 2024 4:09:29 PM

Can you clarify the issue that you are having so that we may assist you further? 

 

@latefiler5