Error: Gross Sales Price shouldn't be less than zero

[Anonymous]

TT complains that "Gross Sales Price shouldn't be less than zero" when I'm about to efile. Apparently this issue has been there since at least the 2019 version.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/investments-and-rental-properties/discussion/my-1099b-has-a-negati...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/retirement/discussion/can-i-enter-a-negative-amount-for-proceeds-b...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/investments-and-rental-properties/discussion/turbo-tax-does-not-al...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/is-there-a-way-to-bypass-smartcheck-errors-smartc...

The issue could happen if you have short sales and import from certain brokers such as TD Ameritrade or ETrade.

Some "Expert" answered in the above threads that IRS does not allow negative sales value. That's not true. As stated in the IRS 1099-B Page 8 (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099b.pdf) :

Box 1d. Proceeds
Enter the gross cash proceeds from all dispositions (including short sales) of securities, commodities, options, securities futures contracts, or forward contracts. Show a loss, such as one from a closing transaction on a written option or forward contract, as a negative amount by enclosing it in parentheses.

Some "Expert" in those threads gave a workaround by changing the reported number. I don't think that's an acceptable solution. Messing with reported numbers is a bad idea. You don't want to confuse IRS.

Many brokers report negative values for short sales, such as TD Ameritrade, ETrade. Many other tax softwares have no problem with negative values. It seems only TT has this issue. Please fix it and make the fix permanent.

[BriGuy832]

Agree completely. I went through this whole problem last year, and ended up manually changing 186 entries from "-" numbers in "Gross Sales Price" to 0, and inverting those to be positive numbers in the "Cost or Other Basis plus Expenses". And of course a few days later, TurboTax rolled out an update allowing these things.

But now the problem is back again, but only on my MA return, Schedule B/D, Capital Gains/Losses Worksheet.

One would hope that TurboTax would roll out a similar update/patch/fix that they did for last year's Federal Return, but that happened February 18th last year, and here we are a month after that with no update for the MA version. 

I was able to submit my Federal Return that has all the same information a few weeks back, and there was an error at that time that not all MA forms were available yet. Now that there all required forms, I am getting this "Gross Sales Price shouldn't be less than zero" error message, even though it is all the same data from my ACCEPTED Federal Return.

Really makes no sense, and shame on me for thinking that TurboTax would actually fix this issue as they said they would even after having such a terrible experience last year!

[PatriciaV]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention for the 2021 tax year. It would be helpful to have a TurboTax ".tax2021" file that is experiencing this issue.

You can send us a “diagnostic” file that has your “numbers” but not your personal information.  If you would like to do this, here are the instructions: 

In TurboTax Online, please go to the black panel on the left side of your program and select Tax Tools. 

1. Then select Tools below Tax Tools. 
2. A window will pop up which says Tools Center.  
3. On this screen, select Share my file with Agent. 
4. You will see a message explaining what the diagnostic copy is.  Click okay through this screen and then you will get a Token number. 
5. Reply to this thread with your Token number. This will allow us to open a copy of your return without seeing any personal information.  

For TurboTax Desktop, please go to Online in the TurboTax header and choose Send Tax File to Agent. Post your token here.

We will then be able to see the same experience you are having. If we are able to determine the cause, we'll reply here with an update and perhaps a resolution. 

[bmartin112]

I'm having this same issue on hundreds of transactions (I sold a lot of options, then bought them back).  I uploaded my file...token is 970922

Thank you!

[BriGuy832]

@PatriciaV Someone from the OotP reached out to me and I provided the token that way. If it would be useful to have here, please let me know, but I don't want to possibly duplicate the information by posting here if its already been downloaded.

[bmartin112]

By the way, I'm reaching out to TDAmeritrade too... not sure which side is causing the problem.   I only have this issue with my TDAmeritrade feed, not Fidelity.

[nborrelli]

Hi, I'm having the same issue.

My token code is 972600

Thanks

[mapleboard]

I am also having this issue. Would be great if TT could roll out an update to fix.

[bmartin112]

I contacted TDA.  They are aware of the problem, and say it is up to Turbotax / Intuit to solve.  Unfortunately I don't have a 'Live' account to talk to anyone at Intuit.

[jkirktt57]

I have the same problem,  impacts all my Fidelity option transactions (several) where I sold a call option but had to buy the call option back at a loss because the stock rose.  Example, sold an Apple call option on 1/4 for 340.30 then bought it back on 1/21 for a 475.69 which resulted in a net loss of -135 dollars. Fidelity just reports a sales proceed of -135.39 and the transaction processes with no errors on the Federal Turbotax return however the Massachusetts State Turbotax return records an error indicating that the Gross Sales Price can not be less than zero. Can you just remove that validation in the State return given the Federal return allows it.? Did not have this issue last year. Please help, I need to get my taxes filed soon.

[ngotronghieu]

I have same issue. Very annoying. Not able to submit MA tax return.

Need TT help to resolve asap.

[maytt]

@PatriciaV  My token number is 975122. This error is preventing me from filing my MA state tax return.

[platinumxsniper]

token  975123.

This issue is only with Mass State Review.  Spent hours to get here just to hit a wall.

[ngotronghieu]

My token no: 975134.

Plz help.

Thanks.

[tokinb]

Hi

Please Help hears my token# 975146

Thank You